The Father
by Procrastinating4237
Summary: It all started with a wish, but because it was Percy Jackson it couldn't have been a friendly goddess granting him a wish. No, it had to be Nemesis, goddess of revenge and balance. Now Percy and Annabeth are stuck in a strange new galaxy right when an ancient and powerful darkness finally begins to stir.
1. I Make a Stupid Wish

This story begins a month after the Blood of Olympus (so it ignores Magnus Chase and Trials of Apollo) and eight months before The Phantom Menace begins.

Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson or Star Wars. Done for fun.

Chapter 1: I Make a Stupid Wish

This all started with me making a wish. Most people can ignore the cliché saying "Be careful what you wish for," but when you're the demigod son of Poseidon, and annoying Greek gods enjoy messing with your life for entertainment, your wishes might actually come true.

I was having a rough year. But that's what happens when your immortal aunt kidnaps you, puts you to sleep for four months, takes all your memories, and then sends you across the world to battle Giants, only for you to return just in time to protect your home from monsters and stop the evil primordial earth goddess Gaea. Though truthfully, this had been a tough year for all the demigods. We were all slowly recovering after losing many good friends in the war. Everyone was doing their best to honor the fallen and work for a better future. Some of the Roman demigods had stayed to help the Greeks rebuild Camp Half-Blood and within a few weeks all the cabins were repaired. You've got to love that Roman engineering. It was nice to see the two sides working together and trying to mend centuries of conflict. I knew it wouldn't happen over-night, but hopefully, the new exchange program between the Greek Camp Half-Blood and the Roman Camp Jupiter would be a success.

By the end of summer, campers had resumed their usual activities of climbing the lava rock wall, flying pegasi, playing capture the flag, and singing campfire songs, but I was ready to leave. I was tired of all the stares, of the hushed silence that followed me around like a shadow. Only members of the Argo II treated me like normal and of course Clarisse still called me "punk" whenever she could. Everyone else gawked at me like I was some kind of alien. Chiron, my mentor, the immortal trainer of heroes, and the camp's activity director, said the other campers meant it as a sign of respect and thought I was a living legend, the new Hercules so to speak. However, I hated it. I did not deserve their hero worship. I had let Leo die and failed to save so many others, not to mention that small, dark part of me that had enjoyed choking the poison goddess Akhyls on her own poison and tears in Tartarus. Plus, Hercules was such a jerk. I hoped I would never be like that. But finally, I was going to get a well-deserved break because today for the first time in eight months, I would be going home to my mom and Paul. My girlfriend Annabeth and I had decided to spend our last year of high school together in New York before heading to New Rome for college. I grabbed my packed bag including the emergency demigod essentials (non-perishable foods, cannister of nectar, squares of ambrosia, lots of drachmas to stay in touch with my Roman and Greek friends) and headed to the Athena cabin.

I knocked on the door of the silvery cabin, and I swear, the owl over the door glared at me with its onyx eyes as if to remind me that Athena was watching and did not approve. As usual, I didn't hear anything since children of Athena always seemed much too busy to ever answer their door, so I stepped inside. "Hello? Ready to go?" I called.

I got a "Hmm, that's nice" as a reply which is Annabeth's default response whenever she's too engrossed in something to bother with an actual reply. Annabeth was working on Daedalus' Laptop 2.0. Daedalus' original laptop was lost in Tartarus, but like any smart girl, my Wise Girl had backed everything up on a special external hard drive including the original schematics. By the end of summer, she and members of the Hephaestus cabin were able to build a replacement.

Making sure to stay out of judo-flipping range, I grabbed a pillow from a nearby bunk and threw it at Annabeth's head. She whirled around just in time and caught it before it hit her. Then, she charged at me. I put my arms up to protect my head from the onslaught of pillow swings and laughed as I retreated until I fell on the bed behind me. Annabeth jumped on top and continued to whack me until I said, "Okay, okay, I surrender."

"That's what I thought, Seaweed Brain." She bent over and kissed me.

I smiled up at her as she pulled away. "Ready to go, Wise Girl?"

"I just need to pack up the laptop. I was helping Jason design the new temples for the minor gods." For those of you who don't know, my girlfriend is an amazing architect. She even redesigned Olympus after it was trashed during the second Titan war. I waited till she gathered her things, and we headed to the camp boarder where Argus, the camp's many-eyed security guard, was waiting for us with the camp van at Thaila's tree. I paused at the tree and glanced back at the camp. For some reason, I got a feeling that it would be a long time before I saw it again. I shook my head and told myself, snap out of the doom and gloom, Percy. The good guys won, and you will have a nice peaceful break and can visit camp on the weekends. What could go wrong? Yeah, after five years in the Greek world, I should have known better than to even think that question.

We asked Argus to drop us off at one of those cute little towns between camp and New York City. Annabeth and I had a great, romantic afternoon together. We had lunch at a nice little Italian restaurant, looked at all the shops in the town, walked around a marina, and relaxed at the local park. Even though I couldn't wait to see my mom again, Annabeth and I had decided that we needed an afternoon for just the two of us, something we hadn't done since that lunch in Rome before Annabeth's solo death quest. Also, I was a little worried about telling my mom what happened. I tried to give her the Spark Notes version of my quests and downplay the dangerous stuff. But she would always get this really sad look in her eyes, and I hated that I was the reason it was there. I didn't even know how I would bring up Tartarus, "So my girlfriend fell into the eternal pit of damnation, and I decided to be a gentleman and jump in after her," didn't seem to cut it. As we left the park heading to catch the train to Manhattan, I put my arm around Annabeth and kissed her cheek. "I'm so glad we could do this before we got busy with parents, and school, and random monster attacks."

"Jeez, Seaweed Brain are you trying to jinx us. You know better than to say the 'M' word out loud when we are having a perfect afternoon together," she replied with a smile and leaned into me. "But I'm glad too." Then, she got this mischievous glint in her eye, "Especially since this is your last day of freedom. I've already got a detailed tutoring plan that will have you working harder than Sisyphus to get you caught up and through your SAT's." I groaned. You would think that defeating Titans and Giants would exempt you from standardized testing for the admission at the College of New Rome, but there are few things that Romans love more than standardization.

Suddenly, I got a prickly feeling at the back of my neck. I immediately dove to the ground, dragging Annabeth with me. WHIIIIISH! Something flew over our heads. We rolled in opposite directions to create two targets instead of one. As I got up and uncapped my ballpoint pen, Annabeth put on her magical Yankees cap and disappeared. Once uncapped, my seemingly ordinary ballpoint pen became my three-foot-long celestial bronze sword Riptide. I raised it just in time to parry three more spikes that were speeding right for my head, coming from a nearby cluster of trees. I had a weird sense of déjà vu. Whatever monster I was facing, I knew I had fought it before. I just had to remember.

Annabeth and I had fought together so many times that we knew what each other would do. By putting on her invisibility hat, Annabeth had entered stealth mode which meant I got to distract the beasty with my charm and sharp sword. "Here monster, monster, come out and play," I taunted.

A voice replied, "So the rumors are true, you have gotten cocky, and you will be that much easier to defeat. Perseus _Jackson_ , we meet again."

"Uh-oh" As soon as the monster said my last name with his heavy French accent, I had a flash back to Westover Hall over two years ago, and I knew I was facing Dr. Thorn, aka the manticore, one of the few monsters that I had faced but didn't actually defeat.

Dr. Thorn stepped out of the shadows, his one brown eye and one glowing blue eye starring me down. While he slowly stalked toward me, he sneered, "Once again, I was denied glory. Gaea released me from Tartarus to lead her forces at the Strait of Corinth. But of course, you heroes chose the other way, so I was forced to make my way from Greece to America. Just so I could kill you. And I thought heroes were supposed to be brave."

I knew what he was talking about. As we were trying to get to Athens to stop Gaea from rising, the crew of the Argo II had to decide whether to take the direct route through the Strait of Corinth or the long route around the Peloponnese. After we found out that passing through the Strait of Corinth would be impossible due to Gaea's forces, we went the long route. "Wow, you crossed a whole ocean just to kill me! I feel honored. I guess you can jump up a few spots in the very long list of _Beings Who Want to Kill Percy_."

Dr. Thorn growled and continued to advance. "You have no hunters or wine gods to save you this time, Perseus _Jackson_ , and once I have killed you, the strongest hero of the age, I will finally be feared and admired."

I got really ticked off after hearing that. I hated that monsters somehow thought that if they defeated me, it would elevate their status somehow. Like, was there a monster league score board somewhere that kept track of monster points? If so, I wondered if I could bet on it because hands down the Chimera should definitely be winning. Dr. Thorn shifted to his true form. His hands changed to orange paws with enormous claws. His body became a huge lion, and he launched another volley of missiles from his scorpion tail.

I knocked them away with my sword and charged. I had improved a lot in the last two years from training at camp and, you know, all of the near-death experiences. He was too strong to meet head on, so at the last second, I ducked under his extended fore claw and slashed Riptide at his stomach, quickly rolling away. At the same time, an invisible Annabeth must have hopped on his back and sliced her drakon bone sword across his neck because he roared and bucked throwing Annabeth to the ground. Her cap came off in the fall, and she hit the ground with a loud thunk, visible and dazed. Quick as a strike of lightning, the manticore's tail came down towards her. She barely rolled away, and the spikes grazed her shoulder. The tail was coming for a second attack while Annabeth struggled to scramble away. "No!" I leapt forward and slashed through the tail as it passed over the manticore's head. The manticore howled in pain and clumsily lunged at me with his claws. I brought Riptide up to block, followed by a quick side step and spin move. I was too close for him to use his claws now and quickly stabbed him straight through his side. He cried out, " _Jackson_ you will …," and he proofed into monster dust before he could finish his threat.

I ran to Annabeth who was slowly standing up. "Annabeth, are you okay? Did he get you with the poison spike?"

She gave me a weak smile. "I'm okay Percy, just a small scratch, but it does burn."

I frowned at her. "You know, I'm the Seaweed Brain of this relationship. I'm the one who is supposed to do stupidly reckless things like jumping on a manticore's back, not you."

"Well, I had so much fun doing it the first time, I just had to do it again, and besides it's good to give you a taste of your own medicine every once in a while. Now you know how I feel when you're stupidly reckless all the time, Seaweed Brain."

"At least there were no cliffs for you to fall off of this time. Let me see your shoulder." It was just a scrape with a little bit of blood. I grabbed some bandages from my backpack and handed Annabeth my canister of nectar. She sipped a little from it to combat the effects of the poison running through her veins, but she was careful not to drink too much and spontaneously combust. I quickly cleaned out the cut and wrapped it up. "We were lucky. It could have been a lot worse," I said. Annabeth just squeezed my hand while we gathered up our stuff and headed to the train station though we had missed our train and would have to wait an hour.

I started ranting as we walked. "Ga! I'm so sick and tired of this. I mean is it too hard to ask for one afternoon without getting attacked. Monsters hunting me down just for the chance to kill the 'famous' Percy Jackson. For once, I wish we could live in a world where no one knows us, where we could be normal, where I could just be your boyfriend and not worried about attracting danger to the ones I love."

Annabeth pulled on my arm to stop me and brought her hands up to cup my face. She looked me right in the eye and said, "Seaweed Brain, there's nothing we can't handle as long as we are together." And then she kissed me. It was one of those deep kisses that instantly made me feel better and where I couldn't help but close my eyes.

The next thing I knew, we were surrounded by a glowing green vortex. I heard a cackle and then, "For the respect you have showed me and the other minor gods after the Titan war and for your sacrifices to defeat Gaea, I will grant your wish Perseus Jackson. For I am Nemesis, and I always pay my debts, good or evil."

Now, I may not be the smartest demigod, but one thing I knew very well was Murphy's Law. When Annabeth first explained it to me years ago, she said, "Murphy's Law is basically your life, Percy. Whatever can go wrong will go wrong." So, when a deity granted me a wish, it couldn't have been a friendly goddess like Tyche, the goddess of fortune and luck. No, it had to be Nemesis, goddess of vengeance, retribution, balance, and justice. Before I could say, "I'm only joking! It's really okay! You don't need to trouble yourself." Everything went black.

* * *

Nemesis cackled to herself. She paid a debt, taught a demigod a very important lesson, and who knew maybe in that other world he and the daughter of Athena would find some peace, at least for a time. Although the dimension she sent them to was far past the reach of the Greek gods, she had a special connection to it: powerful beings seeking revenge for a thousand years whereas the other side hoped for balance.

While the Jedi's definition of balance may be a little different than hers, she did understand the importance of returning the source of their power to its natural state without the contamination of what they called the dark side but what she knew was the power and influence of an ancient and powerful being from her world. However, the old foolish monks had become static and arrogant. With the help of the demigods, perhaps the Jedi could achieve their balance and defeat the looming darkness, but the Order would need to change their ways and accept the heroes. Otherwise, the Jedi would face her version of balance no matter the source of the dark side. Knowing how the willful son of Poseidon felt about arrogant beings who tried to control everything, she liked her chances. Either way, it was a win-win for her, balance or revenge.


	2. We Land in Oz

Chapter 2: We Land in Oz

I woke up to the sound of flowing water. The grass was soft, the air smelled sweet, and everything seemed peaceful. I opened my eyes and saw a bright blue sky with fluffy white clouds. Where was I? I got a feeling that I wasn't on Long Island any more. The fresh water next to me felt too clean, without the pollution I came to expect around industrial America. Oh gods, Annabeth! I sat up and quickly found her stirring next to me. When she sat up, I gave her a hug while I went through my mental check list:

My name is Percy Jackson, son of Sally Jackson and the Greek god Poseidon – check

I am seventeen years old – check

My girlfriend Annabeth Chase daughter of the Greek goddess Athena is with me – check

We were on a date on Long Island and were attacked by a manticore and then sucked through a swirling green portal courtesy of Nemesis – check

Well at least I have my memory this time. And Annabeth. I touched my pocket and felt the reassuring presence of my lethal pen, and our bags were lying next to us.

"You okay, Percy?" Annabeth asked.

"Yep, it seems like my memory is intact, and you're with me. So, it's much better than the last time a goddess decided to magically transport me somewhere," I replied. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine." She rotated her shoulder some. "Actually, my shoulder feels completely healed. I guess Nemesis must have healed it when she sucked us through that portal. Now, where exactly are we?"

Her gray eyes started sweeping the area as her mind whirled trying to put together the clues to figure out our location. We were on some kind of grassy plain with a few hills scattered around and a large river next to us. "I don't know. But I do know that the water in that river feels too clean to be anywhere near New York City. Also, I feel a lot of water beneath us."

Annabeth frowned, "Like groundwater?"

I shook my head in response, "No, it feels deeper and just, more. Usually, I really have to strain to feel groundwater. This is like an ocean but miles underground if that makes any sense."

Annabeth sighed, "No, that doesn't. Although some scientists have found evidence of oceans in the mantle, it shouldn't be the cause of the difference that you are describing."

"Well, I'll just whistle for Mrs. O'Leary, and she can shadow travel us back to Manhattan once she gets here." Mrs. O'Leary was my loyal pet hellhound, and with her ability to shadow travel, she could travel across long distances almost instantly though she would probably have to nap before she could take us back. I grabbed the Stygian Iron dog whistle hanging from my camp necklace and blew it. The dog whistle was a gift from Nico, son of Hades, that let me call Mrs. O'Leary from anywhere. Annabeth and I waited a minute, but Mrs. O'Leary never appeared out of the shadows. "If we are really far away from her, it might take a while," I told Annabeth. "I better Iris message my mom while we wait, to let her know that we are running late."

We walked to the river, and with a wave of my hand, I manipulated the water to make a misty rainbow in front of us. Annabeth grabbed a golden drachma from her bag and said, "Oh Iris, goddess of the rainbow, please accept my offering. Show me Sally Jackson in Manhattan," before tossing the coin through the rainbow. The coin passed through the rainbow and landed on the other side. "Hmm that's weird."

I picked up the coin and said, "Oh Fleecy, do me a solid. Show me Sally Jackson in Manhattan." I tossed the coin at the rainbow, but again nothing happened. Next, we tried connecting to Chiron and then Frank at Camp Jupiter. We even tried our godly parents. Something we never do, but still had no luck.

Annabeth groaned, "I have a bad feeling about this." She pulled out her cell phone. "Look, I've got no service."

"Maybe, we're someplace like in the middle of Africa where the service isn't as good," I stated.

Annabeth retorted, "But then why aren't the Iris messages working?"

I pointed to a nearby hill, "Lets just walk up there. Maybe, we can see something, or you could get cell service."

When we reached the top of the hill, Annabeth gasped, "Oh my gods." Below us was the most beautiful city that I have ever seen, besides maybe Olympus. There were soaring towers, graceful arches, and elegant light green domes. What was even more surprising was the amount of air traffic surrounding the city. There were lots of small vehicles flying around, and a few larger ones that would just disappear out of the sky. Not like airplanes that passed over you. These seemed to just go straight up and vanish. "Toto, I don't think we are in Kansas anymore."


	3. We're in the Money

Chapter 3: We're in the Money (Sort of)

"Well, we know why the cell phone and Iris messages weren't working," Annabeth sighed. "I have three current hypotheses."

"You do? Because I feel like we just landed in Oz." I clicked my heels together three times and said, "There's no place like home." Nothing happened.

Annabeth gave me the I'm doing something foolish look. "Really, Seaweed Brain?"

"Hey," I said defensively, "It was worth a try, it worked for Dorothy."

She rolled her eyes and went into lecture mode. "Option one: we somehow got sent far into the future. They have different means to communicate that don't use cell phone satellites, and somehow sadly, Mrs. O'Leary, Iris, and maybe all of the Greek gods faded." That was a rather depressing thought. "However," Annabeth continued, "sending people through time doesn't seem like a power of Nemesis. Kronos, maybe, but Nemesis, not likely, though until further proof we can't rule it out. Option two: Nemesis sent us far away to another solar system, maybe even another galaxy, that has sentient beings who have developed advance transportation. I don't know how Nemesis could reach this far off planet and not the other Olympians, but if these beings have space travel, maybe we could find a way home. Option three is not too far off from your Oz theory. Nemesis opened a portal to an alternate dimension, universe, whatever you want to call it. In which case, we would be stuck here unless maybe Nemesis could bring us back, or this universe has powerful beings or technology that can open portals to other dimensions. Even then, we would have to be careful that we returned to our dimension and not another alternate." Great, never thought I would be hoping I was just a few solar systems away from home. "And like most of our troubles," she said with that twinkle in her eye, "this is totally your fault."

I snorted, "I don't think I can take full credit for this masterpiece of trouble. I think Nemesis and the manticore are in the running for MVP as well."

"Do you remember exactly what you wished for again?" Annabeth asked, "Maybe something in the wording could give us a clue since gods really seem to like their word play."

I rubbed the back of my neck sheepishly trying to remember. "I think it was something like a normal life or a world where no one knew us."

"Well, congratulations Seaweed Brain. You got your wish. I don't think anyone here will know us."

I felt really bad then when I started to realize exactly what I had dragged Annabeth into. "I'm really sorry, Annabeth."

She squeezed my hand. "It's okay Percy. If I wanted a boring life, I would have stopped being your friend years ago. We will get through this together, and hopefully, this adventure won't be as bad as Tartarus." Then she kissed me.

We headed down the hill as the sun left the sky but decided to set up camp just outside the city limit. With no idea what kind of currency this place used, we thought it best to figure stuff out in the morning and maybe find a way to get some money. But to be safe, we didn't start a fire since we did not know what kind of dangerous nocturnal wildlife might be lurking about. We ate a small meal of beef jerky and protein bars from our emergency rations. I laid back and watched the moon and foreign stars appear in the night sky. I missed the familiar constellations I had come to recognize over the years along with their stories. They always reminded me that no matter where I was or how bad it got, there were other heroes that had come before me. It almost felt like they were watching out for me, especially my favorite constellation, the Huntress, that had been my friend Zoë Nightshade.

"I don't recognize any of the constellations."

Annabeth agreed and added, "There's also a second moon rising over there, so I think it's even less likely that we are on Earth at all no matter the year." Sure enough, she was right. I even spotted a third moon starting to peak over the horizon.

Annabeth pulled out Daedalus' Laptop 2.0, and the screen flickered to life. I'm not sure what kind of power source the thing used, but I've never seen Annabeth charge it. If we could mass produce it, we would probably solve Earth's energy problem. After a few minutes, Annabeth gasped. I sat up and asked, "You found something?" I don't know what kind of advanced technology or even magic that laptop worked on, but it could do anything.

Annabeth shrank the laptop to tablet form and flicked the screen a few times before she responded. "I think I connected to this place's version of an internet though it's called the Holonet and only seems to show news pages and weird hologram videos. I'm running a program now that will search through the pages and collect any useful information for us." Ugh! How could someone ruin the internet? I guess goodbye cute cat videos.

Annabeth started scrolling through the information easily reading the ancient Greek, the laptop's default language setting. "So, apparently, we are on a planet called Naboo. It's a member planet of the Galactic Republic which seems to be the governing body of this galaxy." Good thing to know that even if the Greek and Roman gods weren't around, there was still good old democracy. "The planet has two sentient races, humans known as the Naboo and an amphibian race called Gungans that are isolated in the swamps. That city over there is Theed, the capital city of the humans. Their government has an elected monarch, currently King Veruna, who is aided by an elected governor. The Naboo speak their own language, but also something called Galactic Basic Standard which is the common language of the galaxy." She tapped something, and I heard a lady talking about some vote in a senate. "So, this Galactic Basic seems to be English," she continued, "which means at least we can communicate with people. On the flip side, the Naboo have their own written language called Futhark." She paused and tapped the tablet again. "Hmm, that's weird!"

"What?" I asked moving over to look at the tablet. Annabeth showed me the Futhark alphabet, and I gasped. I recognized several of the symbols as letters in the ancient Greek alphabet and a few more looked like derivatives. "How is that possible?"

Annabeth frowned, "I don't know. Since we are pretty sure we're not on Earth, it's not like it came from the ancient Greeks. Unless, maybe we aren't the first demigods or Greeks to be sent to this place. Though on the positive side, we should be able to pick up reading this Futhark pretty fast. It will probably be easier than reading English since it's so similar to ancient Greek. The galaxy at large uses a written language called Aurebesh. This one might be a little harder to learn but still probably better than English. The most widely used currency is called galactic credits in the form of credit chips."

"Is there any way to get some of these credits?" I asked.

"Hmm," Annabeth thought and tapped the tablet a few times. Then she asked, "How many drachmas do you have?"

"Five. Why? I thought you said they used these credit things here," I responded.

"I have seven which gives us twelve, total. And yes, they use credits here, but what are drachmas made out of, Seaweed Brain?"

I thought for a moment and then responded with an "Oh" when I realized what she was getting at. Demigods use Olympian drachmas for Iris messages, sending packages, and bartering with immortals occasionally. Like with everything, Olympians only used the best, so Olympian drachmas were coins the size of girl scout cookies, made from the purest gold.

"Based on my conversions using recent market prices, one drachma should be just shy of 1,500 credits," Annabeth continued. Well, who knew that both gold and democracy were truly universal? "Wow, we're rich!"

Annabeth laughed, "Not quite, but it will give us a start. Plus, I think we should only use them one at a time. Just in case Iris messages start working suddenly, or we run into some poor immortal that we can bribe to send us home."

Annabeth continued to research, and we started to form a plan of sorts. Right now, we decided to stay on this planet and learn everything we could about this galaxy in the hopes that we could find a way home. Annabeth did point out that as annoying as the gods were, they, particularly Nemesis, rarely did something without a reason. Therefore, there was probably another reason we were here besides my careless wish, and once we fulfilled that purpose, Nemesis might zap us back home. So, no matter how frustrating it was, the best thing we could do at the moment was just try and make a life here. Annabeth offered to take first watch because she wanted to use the laptop to scan the stars and see if it could figure out where we were in respect to Earth.

I wasn't particularly hopeful. I missed my mom terribly. It was cruel to be so close to seeing her after being away for so long. I was frustrated. I was beyond angry at the gods. And I'll even admit, I was scared. I was afraid that we would never make it back. That my mom was just siting at the kitchen table waiting for me to come home and then thinking that the worst had happened. I knew Annabeth was feeling the same way. But just like in Tartarus, we were both trying to put on a brave face for the other, hoping that it might make them feel just a little better.


	4. Annabeth Tells a Tall Tale

Chapter 4: Annabeth Tells a Tall Tale

The next morning, we headed into Theed. Annabeth was amazed with the architecture, rattling off styles like "Greek, Byzantite, and Frank Lloyd Wright." After five years, I knew what to do whenever Annabeth went into architecture mode: a lot of "Yeah" and "Hmm" and "Cool" and then repeat. I was a little preoccupied with the fashion sense of the locals. It was so varied and brightly colored and way too many men were wearing robe things that looked like dresses. We got a good exchange for our drachma and enjoyed a nice breakfast at a café where I played eenie meenie miney mo with the alien menu options. I couldn't believe that an actual robot, or droid as Annabeth said they were called, took our order and served our food.

Next, we headed to the governor's office in the palace. We discovered last night that the legal age for adulthood on Naboo was 21 which meant we had to have a guardian of some sort for the next four years though I was hoping we were long gone before then. Since we were trying to build a life here until we could get home, we decided we had to be as legitimate as possible. Both of us knew that we would most likely be put in an orphanage, but since we had a source of credits, we hoped it would be a nice one and that we could stay together. Going to an orphanage would be hard for me. I knew a lot of demigods who had lost their mortal parents and ended up in the system, but I was lucky because I always had my amazing mom, until now.

As we entered the office, Annabeth whispered to me, "Now, please behave Seaweed Brain. Try not to smirk, and definitely no wolf stares. In fact, go for that cute baby seal look, and leave the talking to me."

I whispered back "You got it Wise Girl! After all, I don't think that pretending to be orphaned circus performers who lost their caravan will work in this case." We both started laughing at that particular memory and accidentally bumped into two very important looking men having a serious conversation. One of them was wearing those big puffy robes and looked rather distinguished. The other guy had a don't mess with me look and was wearing a sort of brown Kevlar vest thing with some kind of military hat. I gave them my best baby seal eyes and let Annabeth do the talking.

"We're terribly sorry, sirs. We should have payed more attention to where we were walking," Annabeth said in her most innocent voice and a little head bow.

The distinguished man said, "Do not worry my dear. We should have been paying more attention as well." Then he looked both of us up and down, and I realized exactly how grimy we looked between the stains and tears in our clothes from the manticore attack and sleeping on the ground.

I guess we must have looked extra pitiful because next he asked, "Can I help you my dear? Do either of you need medical treatment?"

Annabeth replied, "Physically, we're fine, but we came here to register as orphans." She sounded so lost and even started tearing up. I instinctively wrapped my arm around her and squeezed her shoulders. Wow, when did Annabeth get so good at acting?

Even the military man's face softened, and he muttered "I am very sorry for your loss." The man in the robe asked if we could tell him what happened.

Then Annabeth started to weave a very tragic story. She told him we were from a planet called Earth that had limited space travel capabilities, but that her mother and my father were part of a crew of space explorers trying to improve our people's knowledge. The last trip should have been an easy mission, so they let us come with them to see space for the first time. Then, a strange gravitational phenomenon appeared unexpectedly. The power source of the ship was severely damaged when several asteroids, also caught in the gravitational pull, crashed into the ship. In an attempt to save us, our parents had launched us in one of the few remaining escape pods that was barely big enough to fit us. As we were pulled into a tunnel of glowing blue light, we saw the main ship explode from the pod window. Both of us must have passed out because the next thing we knew our pod was crashing into the swamp. Luckily, we were able to salvage the pod's emergency bags and escape before it fully sank into the water. We used a scanner to find the direction of the nearest settlement and walked for many days until we reached the city.

Finishing her tale, Annabeth said, "I know you probably don't believe us. I mean I can barely believe what happened. Our scientists back home could only theorize about gravitational phenomena forming worm holes that can buckle space. But we have no one else to turn to, and we don't even know if it's possible for us to get home again." She looked sadly at both men. "What should we do next? Can you help us? We have some gold from our emergency bags if that will help with anything."

The older man gave us a small smile and said, "My dear, I am Governor Sio Bibble, and this here is Captain Quarsh Panaka. I do believe you. Although it is rare, hyperspace wormholes are known to appear, but usually we can avoid them with our advanced sensors. I am so sorry that two young people such as yourselves have suffered through such an ordeal, and I will do what I can to help you."

Annabeth gave me a small elbow in the side which I guess was my cue to talk. "Thank you so much, sir. My name is Percy Jackson, and this is Annabeth Chase. Do you think it's possible to find our planet?" I asked hopefully since unfortunately, Annabeth's laptop couldn't find any matches in the stars which most likely meant we were at least in a different galaxy if not a different universe.

Governor Bibble answered, "I cannot make any promises my boy since hyperspace wormholes are very tricky, but Naboo has some of the best scientist in the galaxy. I'm sure they would be happy to try and locate your planet. In the meantime, you will need a place to stay." He frowned and asked, "How old are you?"

"We are both seventeen, sir," I replied.

"Hmm, then you will both need a guardian until you turn 21. I'll contact the orphanages and see if they can take you on."

I tried not to wince when the governor mentioned orphanages, but I knew the captain saw me. I put my begging baby seal eyes on full force, squeezed Annabeth to my side and quickly asked, "If possible, sir, is there any way we can stay together? Annabeth has been my best friend since I was twelve, and we've been through so much together. After everything the thought of getting separated is just too . . . painful."

Governor Bibble gave a heavy sigh, "Unfortunately, my boy, our orphanages are separated by gender."

The captain gave us another hard, long look, and then spoke up, "I can take them."

Bibble blinked at him, clearly surprised, "You wish to take charge of these children, captain? I thought that with the demands of your job, you did not wish for a family."

Captain Panaka smiled wirily and said, "After everything they have been through, I think you can hardly call them children, governor. I know many adults who would not survive a day in the swamps much less several. Since they are almost of age and seem rather resourceful, I do not think they will take time away from my duties. Plus, my private residence is rather large for just me."

Annabeth asked, "Are you sure captain? We really wouldn't want to trouble you, though we can help with some of the expenses."

"There is no need," Panaka replied. "My salary is very generous and more money than I can use by myself. All I ask in return is that you work hard at your studies and community service while you stay here. Force willing, we will be able to locate your home planet and help you return soon. In the meantime, I suggest that you take advantage of our education system since it seems we might be more technologically advanced in some areas than your home world."

Governor Bibble beamed and said, "It's settled then. Percy, Annabeth, you will live with Captain Panaka for the time being."


	5. I Join the Police

Chapter 5: I Join the Police

We spent the rest of the day with Panaka and the Naboo scientists describing everything we could remember about Earth, our solar system, and the galaxy. The scientists ran the information through their database but were unable to find anything. They told us not to give up hope since the researchers had many probes remotely exploring the wild space past the Outer Rim, and one of them might find our system. But it looked like we weren't going home anytime soon.

The next few weeks passed very quickly. Panaka agreed to give us time to learn the written languages and customs of Naboo before getting tested to begin our official education. He warned us that we would probably be placed in lower levels with younger students. However, I think he underestimated the power of Annabeth armed with Daedalus' laptop 2.0 and a whole new galaxy worth of knowledge to explore. Plus, Annabeth refused to be behind in her education even though we were trying to cram at least twelve years of an alien curriculum. She said that her mother would disown her. I didn't dare point out that Athena wouldn't know since we seemed to be beyond the reach of the gods. I just got dragged along the "Annabeth's Crazy Education Express Ride." By the end of the month, we were fluent in both written languages used on the planet and had passed the aptitude test to become Naboo citizens.

Annabeth talked Panaka into giving us one more month to study before taking our education placement tests. Now, Earth's technology was definitely far behind that of the Naboo, but even Naboo's technology was no match for Daedalus 2.0. With her laptop, Annabeth was able to hack, or splice as the Naboo called it, undetected into the education system and access all of their exams and curriculum. Was this legal? Probably not, but Annabeth justified it by saying it was the only possible way we could get caught up, especially without an actual internet to look things up on. Daedalus 2.0 was able to streamline the process even more by removing the topics from the curriculum that we already knew or were not likely to be tested on. Now, I know you must be thinking, "But Percy, what about your less than stellar previous academic performance?" Well, it turns out that being taught in a combination of ancient Greek and Futhark made it a lot easier to learn things, even complex math and literal rocket science. Plus, you have never had Annabeth as a tutor. With her help, I was averaging a year's worth of curriculum in three days. I shuddered to think what she could accomplish if I wasn't slowing her down.

In between studying, Annabeth and I would spar with our swords to keep our skills sharp whenever Panaka wasn't around which was most of the time. Our guardian's job as Head of Security for the Royal House of Naboo kept him very busy. When he could spare a moment, he would teach us how to shoot blasters. Panaka was the slightly over paranoid military type and wanted to make sure his charges could defend themselves if we needed to. Not that he had to worry about that since Annabeth and I had been defending ourselves in deadly situations for years. We decided not to tell him the full extent of our combat skills since that would be a bit difficult to explain, and it hopefully wouldn't matter. But every once in a while, I caught him looking at me, and I wondered if he could just tell in a soldier to soldier sort of way. Annabeth, like with most things, was a natural at firing blasters. I took a lot longer, but with help from Panaka, I was able to hit the target 90% of the time. I still preferred my sword, though shooting a blaster was so much better than archery.

We took our placement exams at the end of the month. Annabeth got top marks, as expected, and had her pick of any of Naboo's schools. I surprisingly did well enough to be accepted at Theed University to study the underground ocean and unique marine life. Annabeth also chose Theed University because they had the best architecture program. Panaka was extremely surprised at the progress we managed in two months. I could also tell he was kind of proud as well. Now, there was no way Panaka was replacing my mom, my dad, or even Paul, but he was sort of like the cool big brother I never had but always wanted. Along with our formal education, we also started our mandatory community service. Annabeth volunteered at a non-profit devoted to restoring Theed's older buildings. I joined the volunteer division of the Naboo Security Forces with Panaka's blessing since I was still considered underaged.

I definitely had a weird feeling the first time I put on the Security Forces' uniform. Percy Jackson and authority figures were just two things that didn't go together, like Annabeth and spiders. In fact, I was a little worried when Panaka agreed to be our guardian, but luckily, he wasn't around enough to really be considered strict. I knew, wherever they were, the Fates were having a laugh. I, Percy Jackson, had volunteered as a law enforcer after all the time I spent running across the country from the police when I was young.

For first few weeks of service, I attended the basic training after my university classes. The training focused on hand-to-hand combat and shooting blasters. It ended with an evaluation of our skills, so we could be placed in one of the three branches: Palace Guard, Security Guard, or Naboo Royal Space Fighter Corps. During the combat part of the evaluation, I made sure to pull my punches and tried to extend the length of the fight, but I couldn't resist the temptation to end the fight using my favorite move, a slightly flashy, quick leg sweep to unbalance your opponent. Annabeth had warned me to keep my previous combat experience on the down-low, but I had to make sure I still did well enough to not get placed in the Space Fighter Corps because, Zeus or no Zeus, there was no way I was flying a spaceship.

The next day Panaka cornered me when I got back to the house. "Percy, I need to talk to you about your training evaluation."

Uh-oh that was not what I wanted to hear. I guess that's the problem when your guardian is also the Head of Security. I tried to act casual and shrugged, "Sure, what about it?"

Panaka gave me one of his deep, penetrating looks, "Your final evaluation has the best score in the volunteer division history."

Stay cool Percy, think like Annabeth. "I guess I must have a really good trainer as a guardian," I replied with a weak smile.

Panaka frowned, "I also trained the man you fought, after he had an impressive career at the Republic Special Task Force." I winced at that. "He also told me," Panaka continued, "that you were pulling your punches, you made five moves that could have ended the fight but backed off instead, and when you finally did end the fight, it was with such a quickly executed move that he is still trying to figure out how you did it." Yep, I'm busted. I knew I shouldn't have done that leg sweep, but it was just so much fun to do. Annabeth's going to kill me. But it's not completely my fault. All my training at Camp Half-Blood focused on staying alive and killing monsters as fast as possible, not how to hide your skills.

"You and Annabeth never talk about your life before the crash when I'm around, and I did not want to pry. However, no normal civilian should have been able to do what you did. I tried to respect your privacy and hoped you would open up to me one day, but now, I have to know why you are able to beat a seasoned soldier without even trying?" I bit back my snort. Yeah, 'normal' and 'civilian' were two words that definitely didn't apply to me.

I tried to think of what to say. It's not that I didn't trust Panaka. It's just that he wasn't ready to hear the whole Annabeth and I are half-gods speech. Plus, how do you even explain Greek mythology when Greece never existed here? And to be honest, I was being a little selfish. I payed a huge price to be just Percy, and I wasn't ready to give that up yet. I'll stick to half truths then. I sighed, "When I was young, I got in trouble a lot." I gave him what Annabeth calls my troublemaker smirk.

Not amused, Panaka asked "What kind of trouble? Were you a thief? Did you do drugs? Did you join a gang?"

"Why does everyone think I steal things?" I huffed. "And no, I was not a thief, I've never done drugs, and I didn't join a gang." I glanced down at my arm with the legion tattoo. On second thought the Romans might have been culty enough to be considered a gang. It's a good thing Naboo fashion included long sleeves. "Well, I didn't join a gang initially. I mainly got in trouble because I really, really don't like bullies and didn't have enough self-preservation to stop myself from going around and challenging them. Pretty soon I had some nasty people after me, so I had to get good at fighting really quickly if I wanted to survive."

"Have you ever killed someone?" Panaka questioned.

I winced thinking about the demigods who served Kronos in the Second Titan War. "Yes, but only in self-defense or when I was protecting others. Even then, I tried to just injure them," I replied.

Panaka nodded looking more relieved, "What about Annabeth?"

"She was sort of in the same situation as I was though she was a lot smarter about it, and I tended to drag her into my trouble. Honestly, I miss my parents so much and wish I could go back, but the best thing about crashing here is that Annabeth and I got a fresh start. We don't have to constantly worry about our enemies trying to kill us. Now that you know, do you want us to leave?"

Panaka smiled gently, "No, Percy I do not want you to leave. Thank you for telling me. Though I suspect you just gave me the bare minimum of your story, but I understand how painful some memories can be. Just know if you need someone to listen, I'm here. It sounds like you might not have been the best kid, but you are a good man Percy." I blushed, looked at my feet, and mumbled a thanks.

"Now, regarding your placement in the Security Forces, I won't lie. I could use your skills and prior combat experience in protecting King Veruna. You could have a prestigious career position in the Palace Guard and not just a volunteer post."

I thought about it for a second and then shook my head. "I know I should be honored and everything, that you asked me to join the most elite force on the planet, but I volunteered for the Security Forces because I want to help people, not get brought into the world of wealthy, stuffy, conniving politicians, even if that means I just help children find their lost pets because this planet is so damn peaceful."

Panaka looked like he was trying to decide whether to be angry at my disrespect to the king or to laugh. The laughter won as he said, "I think I'm starting to figure out why so many powerful people were mad at you back on your own planet." I gave him a sheepish grin. "Very well then, the Security Guard just gained a very overqualified volunteer. As a captain, I'm a little disappointed, but as your guardian, I could not be prouder." Panaka's smile faded to a frown, and then he added, "It's probably for the best anyway."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Despite my duty to serve him, I do not think that King Veruna is a good king or a good man for that matter, but it's not my place to think such thoughts," he responded. "I just hope the day doesn't come where I am forced to chose between doing my duty and doing what is right."

At that moment, Panaka reminded my so much of Jason, always trying to do his duty. "Back home, I had a friend like that, torn between his sense of duty and what he thought was right. In the end, he decided to redefine his duty so that it aligned with what his heart was telling him was right. I know your case is a little different. That's one of many reasons I try to stay away from swarmy politicians. I don't like it when someone tries to compromise my beliefs."

Panaka chuckled, "You certainly are a unique individual, Percy Jackson. I hope this galaxy lets you stay that way."

Annabeth came back later in the evening from her community service. I don't know how she does it, but she can always tell when I've done something stupid. Once Panaka went to bed, we went for a night stroll. "Okay spill, what happened?" she demanded. I told her about the conversation I had with Panaka.

When I was done, she hit the back of my head with her hand, "You are such a Seaweed Brain, but I'm proud of you."

I was shocked, "You are? Because I thought you would be really mad."

She smiled, "Well, I am mad that you didn't recognize that your opponent during the evaluation was a trained soldier and that you almost blew our cover. But, I am impressed with what you decided to tell Panaka, and you once again turned down prestige and power. Honestly, I don't know why I'm even surprised anymore. You will always be my incorrigibly incorruptible Seaweed Brain." She tilted her head up and kissed me. We didn't do much walking after that.


	6. I Meet His Bossness

**Author Notes: Thank you for the reviews, favorites, and follows. I wrote and deleted this chapter three times, and it still doesn't seem quite right. If you have any suggestions to make it better, please review. I promise the action is coming soon and most of this world building connects back to the larger plot eventually. Thanks for your patience.**

Chapter 6: I Meet His Bossness

Over the next few weeks, my life on Naboo settled into a nice gods and monster free routine. I had classes in the morning, patrolled with the Security Guard three times a week, and spent the rest of my time exploring the maze of water-filled caverns that fed the Solleu River using a Naboo aquatic transport, aka futuristic submarine, borrowed from the university. One of my professors even offered me extra credit if I mapped the underwater network as I went, though he did warn me to be very careful around the dangerous marine life which had halted their previous efforts to explore the passageways leading to the planet core.

I couldn't believe that I was actually doing extra credit. It was like I entered some weird Twilight Zone. But for the first time ever, I loved school. It helped a lot that I could easily read now that the alphabet consisted of Greek letters and symbols instead of dyslexia inducing English letters. My ADHD still crept up, but the lessons were so fascinating that it was a lot easier to focus back on them. As I learned about how the oceans on Naboo formed and its liquid core, I started to understand why my dad was the god of the sea but also called the Earthshaker.

The only downside to my new routine was that both Annabeth and I were so busy with our schooling and community service that we didn't get to see each other too often. We got up early in the morning just, so we could have the extra time to walk to the university together. We also made sure to eat lunch with each other. Originally, it was just the two of us. I loved listening to Annabeth talk about her classes, not that I actually paid attention or could understand what she was saying, but I loved her passion and how her eyes would light up, and she would almost glow with happiness. As the days passed, more and more people would come with Annabeth to lunch. I think some of them might have been her friends, but most of them were guys from wealthy and influential families on track to be the next generation of politicians.

I had always known that Annabeth would be an amazing architect, but here on Naboo she really had the mentorship and resources to truly flourish. She was quickly gaining quite a reputation around the city as the next architecture prodigy. Since the Naboo placed so much importance on architecture, I knew along with those other guys, that Annabeth's current popularity could soon become major political power. Hey, I may be a Seaweed Brain, but I also had my own very brief political career as a praetor of New Rome and had to thwart Octavian's evil political schemes.

Now, I suppose I could have been the overbearing jealous type of boyfriend and glare at the wanna-be politicians as they hit on my girlfriend, but this would make them think I felt threatened by them. It was much more amusing to just smirk at them as Annabeth repeatedly turned them down and watch as they got angrier and more embarrassed and then smirk some more. Not that I would ever take my Wise Girl for granted, (she definitely wouldn't put up with me if I did) but giving up immortality and jumping into the eternal pit of damnation all for love, does give a boy a little sense of security in their relationship.

As Annabeth and I left holding hands after a lunch, she said, "You know, Percy, you should really stop antagonizing them."

I gave her my best innocent look, "Who me? I haven't done anything." She just laughed and rolled her eyes. "Besides," I said, "I remember a certain daughter of Athena said some very unflattering things to a certain future Oracle of Delphi until she swore to a lifetime of maidenhood."

Annabeth's cheeks turned bright red, and she sputtered, "That was so totally different."

I smiled and responded, "Whatever you say, Wise Girl."

My favorite part of the day, besides spending time with Annabeth, was hopping into the futuristic sub and exploring the network of underwater passages. Due to my heritage, I had a definite advantage when it came to navigating the caverns. I could sense the direction the water flowed, where the openings were, and if a tunnel ended in a dead-end. Plus, I knew when extremely large and dangerous sea creatures were going to try and eat me.

On my first exploration trip, I was so excited to finally be back in my element that I decided to travel through the deepest, darkest tunnel I could find which might not have been the brightest idea at the time. I barely avoided getting eaten by a colo claw fish and had to use my control over water to speed up my sub and slow down the eel-like creature while it telepathically shouted, "I will destroy you!" It kind of made me miss the VIP treatment I got from the marine life back on Earth. I mean a few annoying 'Yes, lords,' was definitely better than almost getting eaten.

A few twisting passageways later and I was in a lake that the sub's navigation system identified as Lake Paonga, nearly 8,000 klicks from Theed. I couldn't believe that I traveled that distance in only about half an hour. The lake seemed to be in the middle of a deserted swamp, so I decided to get out and have a little fun. I ran on top of the water then used the water as a trampoline, so I could spring up and dive in. Relaxing in the water, I closed my eyes and just let myself slowly drift down. When I reached the bottom, I was standing on a ridge of sorts, and beneath me was a strange cluster of large glowing bubbles that looked like really big Christmas ornaments just sitting near the bottom of the lake.

Curious, I willed the water currents to propel me over there for a closer look. Standing on a kind of platform, I cautiously poked the bubble. When nothing happened, I pushed at it with my hand. It felt like pressing against jell-o for a second, and then my hand passed through to the other side where it felt dry. I brought my hand back out of the bubble. It looked fine, so I shrugged and asked the one question that has gotten me into more trouble than anything else: why not? I stepped through the jell-o bubble.

On the other side, I was met by gasps of horror from these weird gangly beings with heads like frogs. The part of my brain that sounded like Annabeth realized that these must be Gungans, the other sentient race on Naboo. The rest of me was wondering if they ate flies. I quickly tried to remember everything Annabeth had told me about them. They were an amphibian race, which explained the frog heads, and lived in hidden cities in the planet's swamps. When two Gungans in armor and holding spears rode up on two-legged featherless duck mounts, I also remembered they had a very strained relationship with the Naboo.

Great, I just waltzed into their super-secret city, and I'm an honorary member of a race they consider unfriendly. Good going Percy, let's try not to start a war today. The guards glared at me and leveled their spears. I tried to look as non-threatening as possible and said "I come in peace. I was just swimming around in the lake. You should really have some sign for no trespassers or something. I'll just go back now, okay?".

I tried to step back to the bubble border, but one of the guards said, "Outsider, Stopa dare. Yousa goen ta Boss Ness."

"Wait did you just call your leader, Your Bossness, like Your Highness but with boss? That's a pretty cool title."

The guard said, "No, Boss Nass."

"I thought that's what I said," I muttered. They led me along a few hallways, through some more jell-o bubbles, and down several stairs until we reached a bubble room where five Gungans sat on fancy chairs. The Gungan in the middle was huge, so I figured this must be His Bossness. The guards directed me to stand in the middle of the chamber and backed up. If things went bad, I was confident enough in my abilities to know I could escape. However, I was afraid that I would do some serious damage to an already strained relationship, so I tried to be polite and hoped they would let me go without having to fight my way out.

His Bossness made a weird clicking noise and then said, "Yousa cannot bees hair."

"I know," I said, "it was an accident. I'm terribly sorry, and if you let me leave, I won't bug you again, Your Bossness." I even added a little bow of the head.

His Bossness continued like he never heard me, "Wesa no like da Naboo. Da Naboo tink day so smarty. Day tink day brains so big."

I blinked in surprise. I didn't think anyone had ever accused me of thinking that I was smart before. "Well I'm not actually from Naboo. I just kind of magically poofed here one day. I definitely don't think I'm smart, and as far as brains go, my friend claims my brain is just made of seaweed," I replied.

His Bossness just looked at me for a long minute, and then he let out a big booming laugh and said, "Yousa are not like da Naboo. Meeesa like dis. Meesa tink wesa bein friends."

With that, it was like I was given the keys to the city. They showed me their cool sub called a bongo which had a much sleeker design than the Naboo sub, and I bet it could go faster. When it was time for me to go, His Bossness made me promise to not tell the Naboo where they were, but he wanted me to come back and visit. Apparently, he found me amusing.

When I got back to Theed, I told Annabeth about meeting the Gungans since she technically wasn't from Naboo either. "Wow, Percy, you have a chance to end a centuries long rift and could improve interspecies relations." Then she smiled and added, "Try not to mess it up, Seaweed Brain."

 **I know most people didn't like the Gungans and especially Jar-Jar, but I felt like I couldn't not have Percy find an underwater city. However, the Gungans were so hard to write, I think I will avoid them in the future.**

 **Reviewer Questions:**

 **spell checker 11111 - Excellent question about celestial bronze and drakon bone resistance to lightsabers. Before I even started writing this story I just googled Percy vs Anakin to see who people thought would win, and one of the forums spent three pages just discussing whether a lightsaber would cut through celestial bronze. It is definitely a controversial issue. I did decide how I would handle it in this story based more on Percy Jackson cannon for inspiration. I hope I can convince y'all of my reasoning, but I know some people will probably still be disappointed. It should pop up in chapter 10 if I keep with my current outline.**


	7. We Elect a Queen

**Author Notes: Thank you for the reviews, favorites, and follows. This is the last "setup" chapter which means the next ones will probably be much longer.**

Chapter 7. We Elect a Queen

Annabeth and I had been on Naboo for about six months now, and we were no closer to finding a way home. Even though her relationship with him wasn't the best, I knew Annabeth worried about her father and missed him and our other friends, but there was still nothing we could do about it. Besides, if Annabeth and I had to be stranded on a strange planet, we couldn't have picked a better one. Between Naboo's amazing architecture and the cool underground oceans, plus no meddling gods or monsters, we were as happy as we could be away from our friends and family. I don't think even New Rome could have been this great.

Unfortunately, we could not say the same for our guardian. Panaka seemed to be extra stressed lately. There had been rumors about assassination attempts on King Veruna. If even half the stories I'd heard about scandal and corruption were true, then I can't say I'm particularly surprised. Annabeth and I did our best to cheer him up by talking about our day, but there was only so much we could do. When we were alone one evening waiting for Annabeth to come back for dinner, I asked him if he wanted to talk about it. He just shook his head and quickly asked about the latest lost Voorpak I helped a child find on my last Security Guard patrol.

By the end of the week, King Veruna had abdicated leaving the planet's government in chaos. Governor Bibble was quickly trying to organize an emergency election for a new monarch. Something, I was still trying to wrap me head around. How can you elect a monarch? Needless to say, the gossip at our lunch group, filled with wanna-be politicians, had reached a new high.

"Annabeth, my father heard from a friend that the head of that restoration center you volunteer at is good friends with one of the candidates. Is it true?" a particularly pompous and smug boy asked.

Annabeth just shrugged, "We worked with the one that's going by Amidala when the center was restoring the concert hall." Hiding the candidates' real names was Panaka's idea. With all the corruption Veruna had been involved in, the captain thought it would be easier to protect the next monarch if they had a secret identity for some reason. Something like that definitely wouldn't work back home, but since Naboo didn't have Facebook or Twitter or Google maybe he could pull it off.

"Is it true she's only fourteen?" someone else asked.

"I don't know her exact age, but she did look young. I guess we'll have to see at the campaign speeches today," Annabeth told the group.

Well it turned out that we couldn't 'see' at the campaign speeches because both candidates had on really thick make-up that might as well have been masks and were wearing ridiculous clothes. "I think Panaka is taking this secret identity thing to a whole new level. He should have just stuck with the classic cape. Everyone knows you wear a cape if you have a secret identity."

Annabeth smiled, "They do look a little strange, but I think this is a custom and not so much Panaka. They do it, so the people will know how the candidates intend to present themselves when they represent the planet. The make-up and the clothes are part of Naboo tradition."

The first candidate to speak was an older man, maybe between 30 and 50. With his costume it was really hard to tell. After the first few minutes into his speech, I stopped paying attention. Sure, I could blame my ADHD, but I had heard enough. He had been one of Veruna's advisors, and therefore was emphasizing his wisdom and experience, saying something like, "due to my previous and extremely important position, blah, blah, blah, I can promise a smooth transition that will benefit everyone, blah, blah, blah" He was definitely one of those smug, conniving politicians, and if he wasn't as corrupt as Veruna yet, then he would be soon.

Then Amidala stood up for her speech. Whoever dressed her did a really good job, even if the dress looked like it weighed more than she did. She didn't look anywhere close to a fourteen-year-old girl. She looked proud and strong and determined. Unlike with the man's speech, I couldn't have stopped listening if I tried. She talked so passionately about her love of Naboo, of her plans to make it better. She promised to enact a two-term limit to the monarchy to try and limit the power of any corrupt monarch in the future. She was just so full of hope and optimism. It was a little contagious.

"She's going to win," Annabeth said with certainty as we walked back to the house.

I wasn't as sure. "I hope she wins, but the other guy seems really well connected. And she is really young. I have trouble believing a whole planet would elect a fourteen-year-old to govern them."

Annabeth shook her head, "The Naboo are tired of all the corruption from the previous administration, so they are going to want the exact opposite. Besides the Naboo have always admired and encouraged the innocence and purity of youth in their politicians."

"So, the fate of this planet will rest on the shoulders of a fourteen-year-old girl?" I asked amused.

"Why not?" Annabeth replied with a smile, "After all, both of us literally held the weight of the world on our shoulders when we were that age."

A few days later, I felt a little silly voting for someone younger than me to run a whole planet. But then I thought about Nico and Hazel and all the other young campers at Camp Half-Blood, and I realized that I knew a lot of accomplished fourteen-year-olds. Maybe Amidala was up to the task.

As Annabeth predicted, Amidala won in a landslide. But even Annabeth was surprised when Amidala asked her boss at the restoration center, Hugo Eckener, to be the new Chief Architect. Annabeth was even more surprised when Eckener asked her to join him at the palace and work as his assistant. She said yes in a heartbeat.

* * *

Two weeks after Annabeth started her new job, I found myself walking through the rose marbled hallways of the palace. Ever since Queen Amidala was elected, Panaka had not so subtlety been trying to recruit me to join the Palace Guard again. Today, he offered me a sort of behind the scenes tour. I agreed to come, but only if I got to surprise Annabeth with lunch.

"Really, Tasia was that necessary?" Annabeth's annoyed voice carried into the hallway.

Uh-oh someone got Annabeth riled up. I hesitantly knocked on the half open door with "Ministry of Architecture" written elegantly in Futhark next to it. "Hello," I called.

As I stepped through the door, I saw Annabeth scowling at another woman, who looked maybe a few years older than us, with long dark hair in an intricate braid and wearing one of the long dresses the Naboo favored. I always admired that Annabeth continued to wear pants and a loose top even though many people tried to get her to switch to the Naboo dresses. As a rising architect on Naboo, they said she had to look the part. Clearly, they didn't know how stubborn Annabeth was, and also Demigod 101: when you constantly have to run and fight for your life, you must wear something you can actually run and fight in. Naboo dresses definitely did not fit that criteria.

The strange woman turned to look at me, and her hazel eyes quickly scanned up and down my body before she got this hungry look in her eyes. I felt like I was in front of those flesh-eating horses again. She started prowling toward me. I gulped and looked for possible hiding spots. Behind the large potted plant looked appealing.

"Why, hello there," she purred. "Is there anything I can do to help you?"

She had enough make-up to make Drew Tanaka, daughter of Aphrodite, proud. I quickly looked at Annabeth and silently mouthed, "Help me!" Annabeth just ducked her head and looked like she was trying hard not to laugh.

The woman said, "My name is Tasia, and I am the lobbyist for the Ministry of Architecture." She extended her hand with red tipped fingernails that resembled a claw.

A claw! Maybe, she's some kind of empousa or something. I quickly brought out Riptide in pen form, ready just in case she sprung at me.

"Oh, do wish to give me your contact information?" she asked hopefully.

Annabeth finally got control of herself and walked to me with a big smile on her face. "Seaweed Brain! I wasn't expecting you to show up here," she said.

Tasia looked confused and asked, "Annabeth, you know this handsome man?"

"Yes, Tasia, this is my boyfriend Percy Jackson," Annabeth answered, wrapping her arm around mine and giving me a peck on the cheek.

Tasia's mouth opened and closed several times looking like Frank in giant goldfish form. "But you… and him?" she stuttered.

Annabeth just smiled even more and led me back into the hallway while I was still trying to figure out what had just happened.

"Really, Seaweed Brain were you going to stab a mortal with Riptide again?" Annabeth asked sounding exasperated.

I blushed and scoffed my shoe against the polished marble floor. "I thought she was like an empousa."

Annabeth snorted, "A woman shows interest in you, and you automatically think she is a monster. Sometimes I forget how oblivious you are to the female signs of attraction."

Oh, so that's what was going on. "Can you blame me," I responded, "after Alecto, Medusa, Echidna, Circe, Tammi, and Kelli, it's a miracle I don't stab every woman who looks at me."

"True but exactly how many Greek monsters have attacked us since we fell into this galaxy or alternate universe?" Annabeth asked, amused.

I huffed, "You never know. Just because they are not necessarily Greek monsters doesn't mean they aren't still monsters. Bessie Jr., the sando aqua monster I befriended by the Gungans, could totally give any Greek sea monster a run for his money."

Shocked, Annabeth said, "Wait, you befriended a sando aqua monster! And named it Bessie Jr.?"

I nodded. "Yep, I help her hunt by telling her where all the annoying opee sea killers and colo claw fish are."

"And is this Bessie actually female, unlike Bessie senior, the Ophiotaurus?" Annabeth questioned.

"Umm, I think so? It's kinda hard to tell with the alien anatomy and all." I replied.

Annabeth just laughed, "Only you would name a sando aqua monster, Bessie Jr., Seaweed Brain." I smiled, glad that I could still make her laugh after everything we've been through, and asked Annabeth where she wanted to go for lunch.

During lunch, Annabeth filled me in some more on her new job. "Eckener is stuck in meetings all day, so I'm the one that gets to work on designing the projects," Annabeth said excitedly. "Currently, I'm trying to design something for the queen. It's a tradition that the new monarch builds an addition to the palace to symbolize their ability to add to Naboo culture while still honoring their traditions. King Veruna built this amazing library during his reign, but I don't know what to build for Queen Amidala. Plus, the palace is already an architectural masterpiece. I don't know how I'm going to add something to it without detracting from its current beauty."

I smiled at her, "And you are totally loving this new challenge."

She grinned back, "It's a dream come true."

With that, we spent the rest of the lunch coming up with possible ideas for a new addition to the palace.

* * *

Life was quiet for the next few weeks. Besides attending my classes, I continued to explore the underwater cavern network and found many more tunnels that connected Theeds to other locations on Naboo. Since we had gotten so busy, Annabeth and I had decided that the seventh day of the week would be our day to spend together. Usually, I would take her in the sub and show her some of the cool places I had found during the week. If it was a deserted area, we would spar. We even visited the Gunguns a few times. After we both reassured them that Annabeth was not actually from Naboo, they liked her a lot more. She was amazed by what they had achieved underwater and would spend hours asking about the unique bubble designs.

Almost two months after Queen Amidala was elected, things started to heat up with foreign affairs. Apparently, some trade company was not happy and decided to surround Naboo with lots of big spaceships. When I heard that, I wanted to panic and get off the planet with Annabeth immediately, but everyone else seemed calm. Maybe surrounding planets with lots of big scary spaceships was common here? I didn't really get the details, so I asked Annabeth and Panaka the next time we had dinner together.

"The Trade Federation is protesting a new law in the senate that makes them pay taxes now in areas where they used to be able to conduct business for free," Annabeth said matter of factly.

"So, all these spaceships surrounding the planet are just for some protest over a stupid tax law?" I asked, shocked, "Whatever happened to marches with chanting and posters?"

Annabeth just rolled her eyes. "Seaweed Brain, you need a little more than a protest march to get attention on a galactic scale. But it is worrying because it basically stopped all trade to and from the planet," she said with a frown.

Panaka tried to reassure us. "The queen said Supreme Chancellor Valorum sent his best ambassadors to speak to the leaders of the Trade Federation, so the whole blockade should be gone by the end of tomorrow," he said confidently.

* * *

That night I had my first demigod dream since we got to Naboo. I was sort of just floating in space, but the whole galaxy seemed like it was spread out before me. Then, I noticed the darkness. If you've been around as many dark, evil, and powerful beings as I have, you realize there's a lot of different kinds of darkness. Hades' darkness was like being at a cemetery at night, scary, slightly creepy, but peaceful. Kronos' was cold, sharp, and cruel, and Gaea's was like being deep in a cave, unable to see and suffocating. This darkness felt like it was writhing with anger, and hatred, and a need for revenge. It felt ancient. It was concentrated around this one planet that was covered in lights, but somehow, I knew that this wasn't the source. Then, the darkness started to spread slowly until it covered the whole galaxy.

I woke up in a sweat. Even for a demigod dream, that one seemed cryptic. Usually, they were more straightforward. I would see what my enemies or allies were doing, or sometimes I would dream of a specific moment in the past that always turned out to be weirdly relevant. And then there were always the threatening visions sent from whatever immortal I had pissed off at that time. Maybe this wasn't really a demigod dream; I tried to convince myself. Because if it was, I really didn't want to think about what that would mean for Annabeth and me. I didn't get much sleep after that.

 **Reviewer Questions:**

 **Guest - good question about how Annabeth and Percy compare to Jedi. It's something else I thought a lot about before I started this fic, and maybe one of the reasons there are not more Percy Jackson/Star Wars crossovers.**

 **Short Answer: For the sake of trying to write a good story, I will try to put them on relatively equal footing just to make it more interesting, and I will do my best to justify my choices in canon (Warning, I might have a slight personal bias towards Percy). As for how Percy/Annabeth compare to specific Jedi, they will win some confrontations and lose some, so you will have to keep reading to find out.**

 **Extended Answer: I know some Star Wars fans will be like Jedi/Sith could totally beat Percy, and there might be some Percy fans that say the exact opposite. If you expand past the Star Wars movies, the only limit to what a powerful force user can do, seems to be his experience and imagination. Likewise, Percy's powers were getting pretty limitless at the end of HoO. Between getting an energy boost and being able to heal himself in water and then House of Hades hinted that Percy could control blood and other body fluids which could theoretically let him drown someone using their own body fluids. This power at least in my mind could be the equivalent of a Force choke though Percy does seem to get tired after extensive use of his powers, the extent of his power to some degree (Mt. St. Helens) is limited to the amount of water present, and he is limited by his morals, currently. Therefore with these extremely powerful beings I will try to make any confrontation believable and entertaining. I apologize ahead of time if you think one side is more powerful and should be able to trounce the other. Also, I will mainly stick to Force abilities demonstrated in the movies since the canon books don't seem to be canon anymore, but I might stray sometimes to make the story more interesting.**


	8. We Battle Some Killer Droids

**Author Notes: Thank you for the reviews, favorites, and follows.**

Chapter 8: We Battle Some Killer Droids

In the morning, I gave Annabeth a long kiss before she left for the palace. I held out her emergency demigod pack. "Could you please bring this with you today?" I asked.

Her gray eyes narrowed, "Percy, what's wrong?"

"I don't know, maybe nothing. I just have a bad feeling about today and would feel a lot better knowing that you had nectar and ambrosia with you, plus your sword." I tried to explain.

"Fine, but only if you take your pack too, and when I get back, you are telling me everything," she demanded.

"I promise, Wise Girl," I reassured her.

* * *

Since I didn't have class or patrol with the Security Guard, I spent the morning playing with Bessie Jr. She had cleared out the more dangerous monsters around Gungun City, so we moved toward a different network of caves. The Naboo knew almost nothing about sando aqua monsters because they were unable to safely observe the 200-meter animal. However, I had a few advantages that the Naboo did not, including the ability to actually talk to the intelligent mammal. I was hoping I could eventually write a report on what I discovered to help the Naboo understand these amazing creatures better. Bessie Jr. appreciated the company. She always seemed a little lonely, and she definitely liked the extra food I helped her find. She constantly bugged me for her favorite snack, opee sea killers, which reminded me of Blackjack with his donuts.

I returned to Theed in the afternoon and was shocked to see a Gungan bongo near my normal parking spot. Four skinny droids with really long faces were holding blasters and inspecting the Gungan sub. I had never seen droids like that, and I figured Panaka would have mentioned if he had started using armed droids for security. Before I opened the hatch to my sub, I grabbed my demigod pack, checked the hidden blaster at my side, and pulled out Riptide in pen form. All the droids turned to me as soon as I stepped onto the bank. "In the name of the Trade Federation, you are under arrest," one of the droids said in a monotone voice.

I remember Annabeth saying that the Trade Federation was responsible for the spaceships around the planet. What were they doing down here? Without more time to come up with a better taunt, I fell back on an old classic, "Braccas meas vescimini!" (Latin for "Eat my pants!")

The droid tilted his head, and said, "Uh, that doesn't compute."

While it was puzzling over what I had said, I quickly uncapped Riptide in my left hand and pulled out my blaster in my right. At the same time, I crouched low and used my leg to sweep two of the droids off balance before they could fire at me. Honestly, didn't they know it's a better strategy to spread out more? Then, I fired my blaster at the droid farthest away before slashing Riptide through the other standing one. I swiftly stabbed my sword into a downed droid and dodged a blaster from the remaining one before spinning and slicing it in half.

It's a really good thing that celestial bronze cuts through almost any non-magical metal. I even drove the magical blade hilt deep through the solid asphalt of a bridge once. I looked up and saw several large, tan colored tank things in the street with tons of droids spreading out and rounding up citizens. A few of the droids must have heard the blaster shot and were hurrying this way. This doesn't just look like a protest. This looks like a huge invasion which means the droids and tanks would be heading to the palace. "Annabeth!" I knew I should try to help the citizens, but I couldn't even think straight until I knew Annabeth was safe. I dove into the nearby tributary and willed the current to take me as fast as possible towards the palace.

I exploded out of the water and ran through the wooded section as fast as I could until I reached the side of the palace. I snuck through a side street but ducked around an arch when I heard footsteps coming my way. As the group passed, I peered around the corner and saw eight of those weird stick droids surrounding what looked like some important government people in really fancy dresses and robes and a few of the Palace Guards. Desperately hoping that one of them knew where Annabeth was, I quickly fired my blaster twice and hit the last two droids in the back. The remaining six droids turned in my direction.

I was unable to come up with a better idea, so I uncapped Riptide and charged at the droids yelling random Latin and Greek phrases, hoping it would fry their circuits or something. I ran in a crouched zig-zag to try and avoid the blaster shots from the droids. I even managed to block a blast coming straight for my head with the flat of my blade. Times like these were when I really appreciated my ADHD, also known as my natural battle reflexes. Once I got within striking distance, I easily cut through the first droid I could reach. Then, I dove into a roll to avoid the blaster fire.

As I popped up and sliced through the middle of a second droid, I heard a weird noise, that sounded like a cross between a blaster going off and a Leo bomb, followed by a strange buzzing. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw blue and green lights on the far side of the group of government people where the other three droids were. I couldn't get a good look because I knew I had one more droid on my side, so I prepared to spin and slice when the droid just toppled down with a blaster burn on its back. As the droid fell, I saw Annabeth behind it holding her blaster and looking furious.

A quick glance to my right confirmed that the droids had been cut down by those weird sounding lights, so I turned back to Annabeth and looked to see if she was injured. Risking another judo-flip, I dropped Riptide and rushed towards her. I wrapped my arms around her, lifted her up, and gave her a passionate kiss. I didn't care who was watching at the moment. I was just glad Annabeth was safe and by my side again. An awkward cough brought me back to my senses.

As I lowered her back to the ground and pulled away, Annabeth hit me on the back of my head with her hand. "What were you even thinking, Percy? Charging six long range combatants like that and hollering like a harpy, are you trying to get killed and attract every droid in the area at the same time? You are such a Seaweed Brain."

I looked at her sheepishly giving her my dopey smile. "Yeah, but I'm your Seaweed Brain."

There was another awkward cough, and this time I followed the sound to a young man in his mid-twenties with the most bizarre hair cut I've ever seen. His auburn hair was cut short at the top but had a small ponytail in the back and a long thin braid on his right side by his ear. He was wearing what looked like the top half of a tan bathrobe with a weird brown cloak over it. His face was bright red, and his blue eyes were avoiding my green ones. Clearly, public displays of affection made him uncomfortable.

An older man, dressed in a similar cloak and bathrobe, with a beard and really long hair glanced at Annabeth and I before addressing a woman in a fancy black dress, "We should leave the street, Your Highness. I'm sure someone heard the noise and reinforcement droids will be on the way."

Oops, I just kissed my girlfriend in front of the Queen of Naboo. Now, my face was starting to turn red. I quickly scanned the group and saw Panaka. He glanced my way and just gave me a nod before commanding the members of the Palace Guard to take the droids' blasters.

The group which included a Gungan for some reason rushed into a more sheltered hallway. The long-haired man talked to Governor Bibble and Panaka before we all headed to the Royal Theed Hanger. When we got there, Panaka peered around the door and said, "There are too many of them."

The man in the long hair looked at the hanger before replying, "My Padawan and I will take care of this." He gave me a strange look like daring me to argue before he started talking to the queen. Hey, if he and his buddy wanted to fight the stick droids then that's good for them. I would just sit back and enjoy the show for a change. Plus, I really wanted to see what those noisy light things were that they had used earlier. I was too busy wondering what a Padawan was, who were those people wearing bathrobes, and how had Annabeth met up with them, so I didn't really pay attention to what was being said around me, something about going to croissant and the Trade Federation wanted the queen to sign some treaty.

Maybe I hit my head while I fought without noticing because why else would they be going to a pastry? Panaka looked at me and Annabeth and said, "You both should come with us, but let the Jedi handle the droids in the hanger." We nodded and followed the group minus the governor who had decided to stay. Now, I mentally added another question to my growing list: what was a Jedi? I just assumed they were the bathrobe wearing people.

The older Jedi approached the droids guarding a sleek silver spaceship. He tried to talk his way out, but only succeeded in confusing the droids. Huh, guess you didn't even need to speak Latin or Ancient Greek to confuse these guys. When the droid tried to arrest us, he quickly pulled out a small metal cylinder from inside his cloak, and then, there was this weird noise and a three-foot-long green laser sword extended from the cylinder. He sliced through the droid as easily as I did with Riptide and began weaving and spinning and dodging blaster bolts as he calmly cut down droids like he was part of some strange dance.

The other bathrobe guy with the weird hair was also slicing through the droids with a blue laser sword to free some pilots. The bathrobe guys could even use the laser swords to deflect the blaster bolts back at the droids! The swords seemed to buzz in the air, but every time they made contact with a droid, it sounded like Leo banging around in the Argo II's engine room. At one point, the long-haired man extended his arm without the sword and a droid went flying back. Could he control the wind like Jason? Though, I never saw Jason do such a controlled push before.

I just stood there and stared as they took out the remaining droids. When they were done, the laser swords vanished back into the metal cylinder hilts, and they clipped them on their belts. "Come on Percy," Annabeth said as she grabbed my arm and dragged me up the ramp of the spaceship.

"I think I have some serious sword envy," I muttered still in shock. I swore I heard the older man chuckle and saw the younger one smile as they followed us up the ramp. Feeling slightly like I was cheating on my favorite weapon, I patted my pocket and whispered, "It's okay Riptide. I don't think their swords automatically return to their pockets, and I bet they can't even write with them either. But, man how cool is a blue laser sword!"

Annabeth and I followed Panaka to the cockpit and strapped ourselves into some extra seats at the back. As soon as we took off, my stomach dropped and my knuckles gripping the seat turned white. Annabeth's hand grabbed mine, and her thumb rubbed soothing circles against my palm. I closed my eyes and breathed deeply trying to relax while reminding myself that the gods were clearly not here, so there was no way Zeus could blast me out of the sky.

A voice that I think belonged to the long-haired man said, "I guess we have finally met someone who hates flying more than you do Obi-Wan."

I opened my eyes to see the guy with the weird hair say, "Very funny, Master, though I hardly think now is the time for such jokes."

Before I could come up with a retort, I realized we had left the atmosphere and entered space, like real space. I gaped at the blackness and all the stars, but there were also over twenty flat disk-shaped things in front of us that the pilot called the blockade. They started firing red laser bolts at our ship making it shutter. Now, it makes no sense, but I felt better in space then I did in the atmosphere. The slightest bump while flying in the air will make me jump, but in space, I wasn't nearly as nervous despite the constant shaking from the enemy fire. In space there was no air which should have worried me, but also meant that it was beyond my loving uncle's domain.

Suddenly, alarms and sirens started going off all over the ship, and the screens on the ship's dashboard were flashing orange. "Shield generator is hit," a pilot yelled.

"That doesn't sound very good," I muttered to Annabeth. She just nodded, her eyes jumping from one screen to another as her mind quickly analyzed the situation. She focused on a particular screen that seemed to be showing three things that looked like round metal trashcans with domed tops rolling out to a hole in the outside plating of the ship. The laser fire from the enemy ships blasted one off.

"What are those weird trashcans doing on the outside of the ship?" I whispered to Annabeth.

"They are astromech droids trying to reboot the shields," she whispered back.

While we were talking, another droid blew up, leaving only one which had blue stripes on it. "Come on Blue," I muttered, "you can do it!"

Suddenly, the ship's alarms stopped, and all the screens were green again. "He did it!" Annabeth exclaimed, "We have shields again."

I grinned, "Of course he did it. He's blue. This is just further proof that blue truly is the best color."

Annabeth smiled and rolled her eyes, "Seaweed Brain, how many times do I have to tell you? There is no such thing as a best color. The color blue had nothing to do with the droid's success. It was just a coincidence."

"One of these days, Wise Girl, you're going to have to admit that it can't all just be a coincidence and anything blue is just better," I stated.

While Annabeth and I were enjoying our traditional _we-are-still-alive-bickering_ , Panaka and the older Jedi guy got in an argument about landing on a planet run by gangsters to fix our ship. Great, killer droids, space battles, and now gangsters, what else would this place throw at us?

Once the Jedi guys left with their cloaks billowing out behind them, Panaka turned to us, "Percy, Annabeth, are you both okay? I know this was your first space travel after your crash. I wish it could have been smoother."

"We're okay," Annabeth replied. "Although Percy freaked out a little at the beginning, I think we should be fine now."

"And neither of you got hurt in any of the fighting?" He asked.

"Nope, we are both fine on that front too," I answered.

He let out a deep breath, like he'd been holding it since I first attacked the droids. "Sorry I could not check with you sooner. It's just that-" he started to apologize, but I cut him off.

"It's okay. We know you had to protect the queen, that it's your job and duty to put the monarch and Naboo first," I reassured him. "Besides, in case you haven't noticed, Annabeth and I are quite capable of taking care of ourselves in dangerous situations."

Panaka allowed himself a small smile, "Yes, about that. I'm starting to think you might have downplayed the 'trouble' you mentioned you got into back on your home planet for you to be able to fight like that and remain calm. Even my veterans were having trouble today."

I just shrugged, "Well, there always seemed to be a few months a year where fighting for our lives was a daily occurrence."

Panaka just shook his head, "You must have made some powerful enemies then."

I smiled at that and responded, "What can I say, the people who got mad at me always seemed to have a godly amount of power." Annabeth struggled to keep a straight face after that comment.

"Come on you two," Panaka said with a sigh, "I'm sure Her Highness would like to thank you for rescuing her from the droids though maybe next time try not to put on such an affectionate display afterwards." Both Annabeth's and my faces turned bright red at the comment.

We stopped by a hanger, and the little blue droid joined us. "Thanks Blue for saving us and everything. I hope it's okay if I call you Blue. It's my favorite color, and I have a feeling it's yours too," I told the droid. It responded in a series of beeps and whistles as it rolled along next to me. "Sorry, I don't understand beeps," I said, but I swore it was agreeing with me.

When we got to the queen's throne room on the ship, the two Jedi guys were already there. Panaka, Annabeth, and I all did a respectful bow, and the droid even managed a small dip somehow. The queen said, "I would like to thank all of you for the role you each played in my rescue. Without your help, I would undoubtedly be at the mercy of the Trade Federation now, and Naboo's future would have little hope."

I felt slightly ashamed. My intentions during the invasion had been less noble even if I did accidentally rescue the queen. I made a promise to myself then to do everything I could to free the people of Naboo from the evil, killer droids. But right now, I was still extremely confused and really wanted some answers. "Excuse me Your Highness, I really don't mean to be rude or anything, but now that we are no longer immediately about to die maybe we could all explain how and why we ended up here. No offense to you guys," I waved my hand toward the men in bathrobes, "but I have no idea who or what you are, though I am a huge fan of those awesome laser swords. Also, why are we going to a pastry?"

Annabeth face palmed at the last question while everyone else just looked confused. "Seaweed Brain, we are trying to go to the city planet Cor-u-scant, not croissant," she dragged out the syllables of the weird name. "It's the seat of the Galactic Republic."

"Oh, that makes a lot more sense," I muttered as she rolled her eyes at me.

The long-haired man gave us a kind smile and said, "No offense taken young man, I am curious about you and your friend as well. Both of you have a strange yet strong presence in the Force though I can only sense it when I'm a few meters away from you. Normally, I would assume you are using a form of shielding that I am unfamiliar with, but neither of you appear to have any Jedi or Force training."

Before I could ask what any of that even meant, the queen said, "I would also like to know who you are and what happened earlier today, particularly details about these failed negotiations with the Trade Federation. I am familiar with Annabeth Chase since she is a head assistant for my Chief Architect, but I do not know the names of my other rescuers. Since it appears we will be spending time together and working toward a common goal, I hope to rectify that." She turned to look at the bathrobe guys expectantly.

The older one stepped forward, "Your Highness, I am Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn, and this is my Padawan, Obi-Wan Kenobi. Chancellor Valorum sent us to peacefully resolve the conflict and end the blockade. However, when we arrived on the Trade Federation's control ship, they destroyed our diplomatic transport along with our crew while we were waiting to meet with the viceroy. Then they tried to kill us with Dioxis gas and later sent in droids." Wow, it sounded like these Jedi guys had a worse day than I did. Not many people have managed such an accomplishment.

Qui-Gon continued his story, "We escaped to the main hanger and saw the Trade Federation preparing an invasion army. Knowing that we must warn you, Your Highness, we stowed aboard their landing ships. Unfortunately, we landed near one of Naboo's swamps far from Theed, so we befriended an exiled Gungun, Jar-Jar Binks, that took us to a hidden Gungun city. The Gunguns provided us with transport through the planet core to reach Theed." So that explained the bongo I saw, and the random Gungun hanging around. It's a good thing Bessie Jr. and I cleared out those dangerous sea creatures around Gungun City, otherwise the Jedi might not have made it to Theed because that annoying colo claw fish could have eaten them.

"We were trying to find you, when we . . ." he hesitated here and looked at Annabeth as if not sure what to say before continuing, "met this young woman, Annabeth Chase. Together we tracked your party's movements as we waited for a good opportunity to ambush the droids. I think you all know the rest from there." He finished his story with his piercing blue eyes on me. Well, at least no one can say I didn't make a memorable first impression. Though, even I will admit, charging those droids like that was not one of my better ideas.

Next, Annabeth introduced us as the adopted wards of Captain Panaka. She included a summary of the story we had told Panaka and the governor all those months ago for the benefit of the Jedi and the queen. "As for what happened today, Percy went to explore the underwater caves, and I went to work at the palace. I was in the Ministry of Architecture office with the other aids when four droids entered and tried to arrest us.

"I immediately dove under my desk and pulled out my . . ." she paused and looked at Qui-Gon of all people. He stared at her expectantly but with his eyebrows raised as if in a challenge. Annabeth gave a soft, annoyed huff before continuing, "special hat." I guess she would have preferred to keep the Yankee's cap a secret, but the Jedi must have known about it somehow and would have called her out if she didn't mention it in her story.

"My hat was a gift from my mother and turns the wearer invisible using some weird science I don't fully understand," Annabeth explained. Well, weird science was a good explanation for magic around mortals. "I wasn't entirely sure it would work on droids since I have never tested it past the visible light spectrum, and I didn't know if the droids were equipped with infrared vision. I know for a fact that it does not fool certain olfactory sensors." Aka monsters, I mentally inserted. "Once the droids were grouped together around my coworkers, I pulled out the blaster Panaka gave me and hit two of them before quickly moving across the room. The remaining two droids were still aiming their blasters at my original position, so I quickly shot them as well. Then I took off the hat and told my coworkers to pick up the blasters from the droids and try to find their families before fleeing to the swamps.

"I figured Percy would come looking for me as soon as he returned to the city and saw the droids, so it would be best if I tried to find you, Your Highness, and help you if you needed it. I put my hat back on and snuck around the palace. That's when I saw the Jedi, and I was extremely shocked that they somehow knew I was there. After the Jedi and I realized we had the same goal, we worked together," she finished. "But I do have a few questions," she turned to the Jedi and asked, "How did you know I was there when I had my hat on? Could you see me? And what exactly is a Jedi?"

Obi-Wan looked shocked and a little offended, "You do not know of the Jedi? How is that possible?"

Annabeth hated to admit that she didn't know something that she should, so I answered for her, "Well, we did cover at least twelve years' worth of Naboo's education curriculum in two months, so we were bound to skip over a few things. And before that, our home planet was still exploring its solar system, so we had never heard of the Jedi or the Galactic Republic."

Qui-Gon looked slightly surprised at my statement and frowned before explaining, "The Jedi are a group of Force-sensitive beings devoted to guarding peace and justice throughout the galaxy. We formed the Jedi Order several thousand years ago and have served alongside the Galactic Republic to bring peace and prosperity to the galaxy." It sounded like these Jedi were just glorified police officers.

"As for your other questions," he continued, "we could not see you, but we felt your presence in the Force when you were near." Annabeth opened her mouth, but before she could say anything, Qui-Gon said, "I will explain what the Force is later, and I have some questions for you and Percy as well. However, now is not the time. We must discuss our next step."

With that, Panaka and Qui-Gon explained the space fight to the queen. She expressed her gratitude to Blue, whose real name turned out to be R2-D2, but I like Blue better. The queen even asked one of her handmaidens to clean the droid. Annabeth stiffened when she heard the handmaiden's name, (I think it was Pad. . . something) and she looked at the handmaiden, the queen, and then Panaka with her _I'm-putting-things-together_ look. In the end, the queen decided to trust the Jedi and land on Tatooine, the gangster planet, for repairs even though Panaka did not agree.

After the meeting with the queen, Annabeth and I explored the ship. We found the handmaiden, trying to clean Blue in one of the equipment rooms. Annabeth smiled at the girl when we entered and said, "Hi Padmé, you know Percy and I could take over cleaning R2-D2 if you want to stop."

Padmé looked up from her work and smiled back, but her eyes had this determined glint when she said, "Hi Annabeth and Percy, thanks for the offer, but I don't mind. Afterall, this droid saved our lives, trying to clean it is the least I can do."

Annabeth looked at the girl with a new kind of respect in her grey eyes. She grabbed two spare rags, handed one to me and said, "Well then, the least Percy and I can do is to help you. And Seaweed Brain try not to break anything."

At that, the droid's domed head rotated to me and beeped as if warning me that I better not mess anything up. I laughed, "It's okay Blue, I promise I won't damage you." The droid beeped a little softer in response, and all three of us laughed.

Padmé was fun to hang out with. As we cleaned Blue, she asked us questions about our home planet, and how we liked Naboo. She just seemed curious and didn't have the 'you're in trouble feeling' I got whenever Panaka questioned me about my old life. In return Padmé told us some pretty funny stories about growing up on Naboo. Before she returned to the queen after Blue was all clean and shiny again, she said, "I am sorry you lost so much when you came to Naboo, but I am grateful you are here, now."

* * *

We spent the rest of the ship's artificial day avoiding the Jedi while Annabeth armed with Daedalus 2.0 and the HoloNet tried to quickly fill in the glaring gap in our education about ancient orders of mystic space police. It bothered Annabeth that they could sense her even with her Yankee's cap on, and we were both worried that they seemed to know there was something different about us. But, they were also the closest thing we had found in this galaxy so far that even remotely resembled magic or godly power, which meant they could be our best bet to find a way home.

After two hours of searching, Annabeth pushed away the laptop in frustration and said, "I can't find anything more than what Qui-Gon told us besides some vague old wives' tales about Jedi battling the forces of darkness. There's no mention of this Force or really any details about the Jedi Order on the HoloNet except that it's run by some Jedi High Council that occasionally makes political statements. I could try to hack into their records, but they seem a bit more secure than the Naboo's education system. Even if Daedalus 2.0 could do it, we would definitely attract the Jedi's attention, and I don't think they would be too happy. As it is, both Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan seem a little suspicious of us and will probably ask some difficult questions soon."

"Well, we really don't have much of a choice then," I reasoned. "We're going to have to talk to Qui-Gon or Obi-Wan and hope one of them will give us some answers. We just better be ready when they ask questions about us. It might not be so bad to tell them the whole truth even. I mean they might be kind of like us. How else could Qui-Gon use wind or something to push down that droid in the hanger?"

"I don't know Percy," Annabeth said, "I was hoping we could figure it out before we talked to them. I feel like we are going into this conversation blind. I mean, they seem to have this extra sense and who knows what they can do with it."

"I just really don't like how Obi-Wan calls the Qui-Gon guy, 'Master.' It makes me think of all those monsters that followed Kronos," I stated.

Annabeth winced slightly at that comment, no doubt thinking about Luke, but then she brightened up and said, "Actually, I did find information on that. Master denotes a rank in the Jedi."

"What do you mean by that?" I asked.

"Even though they aren't exactly a military order, there setup is similar to the Roman Legion," she explained. "Obi-Wan is a Padawan which is kind of like a probatio meaning he is new and still learning. Then, they have Jedi Knights which are like legionnaires and are full members of the Order. Finally, they have Jedi Masters which are the more senior and skilled members like centurions."

"Oh, that actually makes a lot of sense, but any order that has a rank called master seems a little arrogant to me."

When the ship switched to low lighting for night, Annabeth and I laid out our bedrolls from our packs in a spare equipment room. I couldn't help but think of my nice cozy bed back on Naboo. A bed that I had almost eight months' worth of comfortable and peaceful nights in. It was probably a new record for me. Ever since I found out about my heritage, it was hard to get a good night's sleep, and many nights I was lucky if I got to sleep in a bed at all. I turned to Annabeth and told her, "I'm sorry. After dragging you along to this strange world, I hoped that at least we could finally have a normal, peaceful life if we had to be away from home."

"It's okay," Annabeth responded, "I mean we only came close to dying about four times today which is pretty good by our standards. Besides, we had eight peaceful months here. There is no way we ever would have had that back home."

"I know, but even with the stupid dream I had last night, I didn't think it would be this bad," I said.

Annabeth peered at me more closely in the dim light, "So you did have a dream last night. That's why you wanted me to have my pack. Did it warn you about the droid invasion?"

"No, it was actually pretty vague as far as my normal demigod dreams go."

After I described my dream to her, Annabeth frowned and said, "You know what this means, Percy?" I just shook my head. "It means," she continued, "that the invasion on Naboo is just the beginning. Whatever this darkness is that is spreading through the galaxy, I think Nemesis wants us to stop it."

I had trouble falling asleep after that. Annabeth's words were repeating over and over in my head, "just the beginning, just the beginning, this was just the beginning."

 **Reviewer Questions:**

 **Guest -asked a question about Annabeth since she doesn't have any powers. Like in the books, Annabeth is going to be a dangerous adversary not because of any powers, but because she is intelligent, a good strategist, works hard, and picks things up quickly. Although I did hint here that Annabeth and Percy have a strange Force presence. The idea will be developed more in future chapters and could give Annabeth more of an advantage.**


	9. I Eavesdrop on an Evil Lord

**Author Notes: Thank you for the reviews, favorites, and follows. Originally, Chapter 9 and 10 were one chapter, but it made more sense to split them up. However, I still posted them at the same time for you.**

Chapter 9: I Eavesdrop on an Evil Lord

Of course, when I finally did fall asleep, I had another dream. This one was normal, or as normal as demigod dreams can be.

I think I was on one of the space ships in the blockade because I could see those saucer shaped ships and Naboo through the window. Three beings were talking at a black table. One of them was a glowing hologram of a man totally rocking the Ghost of Christmas Future/dementors/scary riders from Lord of the Rings look with dark robes and a hood hiding his face. The other two reminded me of house flies with their big red eyes, grey-green skin, bulbous forehead, and nose-less faces.

Apparently, they were discussing our earlier escape from the blockade, and the hologram man who the others called "my lord," was not pleased. He snarled, "I want that contract signed!"

The insect men winced, and the braver one groveled, "But my lord, the ship is out of range. It is impossible to track now."

"Not for a Sith," the lord smugly replied.

Then, another man-shaped hologram appeared. This new guy just looked like bad news. He also wore a dark hood and robe, but I could see his scowling face a little too well for my comfort. His face was covered in strange markings, and he glared with that _I-will-destroy-you_ look. "This is my apprentice, Darth Maul," the lord said, "He will find the ship." I shivered when I realized that he would be the one hunting us down, and those glaring, hate filled eyes haunted the rest of my dreams.

* * *

I woke up to Annabeth shaking my shoulder in the artificial light of the space ship. Immediately, I sat up, muscles tensing, and looked for a threat, "What's wrong?"

"At the moment, nothing," she said as she wrapped her arm around me, and I relaxed into her touch. "But, based on your sleep talking I think we have trouble on the way. What is a Sith?"

I frowned, "I don't know. I was hoping you would."

She sighed, "I guess we'll just add it to the list of things we don't know. So, what did you dream about this time?"

After I described my dream, she scrunched her face up with worry. "This is not good."

"Yeah, we have scary Mr. Scowly looking for us. I swear his eyes glowed with evilness even though I guess his whole body was glowing since it was a hologram."

"He might cause trouble, but there is a bigger problem," Annabeth stated.

"Bigger than an evil guy hunting us down?" I asked.

"Yes, what you saw in your dream. . . it means that the Trade Federation is not acting alone and may even just be following orders. Someone else, whoever that 'lord' is wanted Naboo invaded and the occupation legalized by the treaty for some reason. So, when Queen Amidala goes before the Galactic Senate to ask for aid, she could be blocked and blindsided by an unknown enemy. Based on his secrecy and use of the Trade Federation, this lord probably works in the shadows by manipulating other factions, so it could be anyone."

"Oh, that would be bad," I agreed. How Annabeth's mind worked, would never cease to amaze me. My Wise Girl could take a few details that just seemed random or unimportant to me, and she would connect them to reveal our enemy's strategy, or a hint in a prophecy, or a way to defeat an opponent. After she explained it, I would always feel a little stupid for not seeing it before, but I guess when your mom is the goddess of wisdom and strategy, identifying and analyzing other people's strategies would come easy to you.

"We need to warn them: the queen, Panaka, and maybe the Jedi, but I don't know how," she grumbled in frustration, "It's not like back home where we can just say, 'Oh, Percy had a dream guys.' Here, they have no reason to believe us that our dreams are real."

"Maybe, we can warn them without telling them about the dream," I mused. "You know a little hint here and a suggestion there until they figure out what's going on. You're really good at stuff like that, Wise Girl. Plus, we know about it, so we can keep an eye out for extra danger and try to figure out who this lord is. It's not like this is the first time we've dealt with an evil lord though hopefully this one isn't immortal. Once we have enough evidence, we can go straight to Panaka and the queen."

Annabeth gave me a surprised look and then smiled, "Oh my gods, did you actually come up with a cautious, well-thought-out plan, Seaweed Brain?"

"Well, I do have this amazing girlfriend, and after six years, my seaweed brain managed to pick up a thing or two that she tried to beat into it," I replied with a smirk. She just laughed and gave me a kiss.

We decided that our first step should be figuring out what a Sith was since that could be a major clue in identifying the mystery lord. But, after searching the HoloNet and our stolen education curriculum on Daedalus 2.0, we found nothing. "Gods, I think I would subject myself to an Aphrodite cabin makeover, if it meant I could have internet in this place," Annabeth groaned, "Since this HoloNet is predominantly based on news, it doesn't really have general information or any history. I'm not even sure what we need to hack to find it."

"Why don't we just ask Panaka if he knows? Maybe Sith is like a slang word for a scientist or a spy or whatever can track a space ship easily," I suggested.

Annabeth frowned, "It's worth a shot, I suppose. And, if he gets suspicious we can just say we heard the term somewhere."

After enjoying a late breakfast in the mess hall, we found Panaka in a room with lots of monitors looking over charts with the Jedi. With a look, a nod, and a few smiles, we communicated that Annabeth would do the talking and that I trusted and loved her.

Panaka turned towards us as we entered and gave us a small smile, "I was starting to get worried that you both disappeared. We should reach Tatooine in a few hours." Good, I was starting to get a little stir-crazy. Not that space travel wasn't extremely cool because it was. But, actually being stuck on a spaceship was not. My excessive energy was starting to annoy Annabeth while she researched.

Annabeth returned his smile and said, "We just found a quiet room and were using my computer to look at some things. Earlier today, we came across a term we didn't recognize. We searched the HoloNet for more information but couldn't find any other reference to it. So, we started thinking it might be a colloquialism and wanted to ask you. Do you know what a Sith is?" As soon as she said the word, the response was immediate. Panaka's eyes widened and looked to the Jedi, who both immediately stiffened and spun around to stare at us.

"Where did you hear that word?" Qui-Gon calmly demanded, but his piercing blue eyes looked worried.

Annabeth looked shocked at the reactions to her question but managed to reply, "We found it on my computer. It's from my home planet and tends to be able to gather information from the HoloNet and other sources better than your computers can." I thought that was a very smart and believable answer. By revealing some of Daedalus 2.0 capabilities, Annabeth had supplied an explanation just in case it was common knowledge that the HoloNet never used the word Sith.

Unfortunately, Qui-Gon did not agree. He frowned closed his eyes for a few seconds before turning them back to Annabeth at full force. "That is a lie," he stated, "please, tell me the truth. It is very important."

Now, Annabeth was truly speechless as she gaped at the Jedi, so I decided to take over the conversation. "Well, sorry for lying and all, but we figured you would be more likely to believe the lie than the truth."

Qui-Gon's lips twitched into a smile, "But you will never know what we will believe unless you tell us. I have found over the years that I tend to have a more open mind than most people. You can trust us."

I wasn't sure about trusting people that belonged to a mystic space police cult, but I didn't see many options other than to tell them about my dream since they seemed to have an automatic lie detector. I looked at Annabeth, and she gave me a small nod. "Okay then," I said, "I heard this hologram guy say the word Sith in my dream last night." I waited for the gasps of denial, or a laugh, or a 'your crazy and need to be locked up' comment.

Instead, I saw Panaka frowning, and the Jedi shared a look before Qui-Gon asked, "Could you please describe everything you remember about this dream?" That definitely was not the reaction I was expecting. Qui-Gon might as well have been Chiron calmly asking about one of my dreams back at Camp Half-Blood for all the surprise he showed.

"You. . . actually believe me?" I stuttered out in my shock, looking at Qui-Gon.

"Yes, though your intentions are even more difficult to gleam than your friend's, I can sense the truth around your words in the Force, barely, but it is still there. Also, it is rather common for Jedi and other Force-sensitives to have dreams, or visions if you prefer that term, of the past and future. Do you have these dreams often?"

"Uh," I said rather intelligently, "I did have these sort of dreams back on my home world a lot, but I hadn't had any since we arrived on Naboo until the night before the droids invaded."

"And do your dreams usually predict the future and come to pass?" Qui-Gon inquired.

I frowned at that, "Usually, I dream more about the present though I do sometimes dream about past events as well. I don't really trust any visions I have of the future because they are usually sent by–"

Before I could finish my sentence, Annabeth cut me off, "What Percy means is that the visions he receives of the future usually show the worst-case scenario, and luckily, we have always been able to make sure that doesn't happen." Oops, I was so shocked that I was even talking about demigod dreams, that I almost slipped up and mentioned angry immortals which would have led to even more difficult questions. "But," Annabeth continued, "in the six years I've known him, Percy's dreams of the present have never been wrong."

Qui-Gon frowned at that, "Do you have these dreams as well?"

"Yes," Annabeth replied, "though not as frequently as Percy. I like to think I have more control over my mental capabilities even subconsciously. I haven't had any since we arrived on Naboo though. Percy, go ahead and tell them about both dreams."

I gave Annabeth a smile. "Guess this was as easy as back home, and all we needed to do to warn them was say, 'Oh, Percy had a dream, guys." Annabeth just rolled her eyes and gave me a playful shove. Then, I told everyone about my latest dreams.

When I was done, Panaka, Obi-Wan, and Qui-Gon looked very worried. "That is most troubling, indeed," Qui-Gon stated.

Annabeth asked, "Do any of you know who this lord could be that is either giving orders to the Trade Federation or is at least allied with them? Who else would benefit from the Federation occupying Naboo?"

"Those are very perceptive questions, young lady," Qui-Gon said sounding impressed, "but sadly I do not have any answers. It does explain the Trade Federations uncharacteristically aggressive actions. Captain, do you know of anything?"

"I'm not sure," Panaka frowned, "Naboo is a peaceful planet, so we do not have any major enemies. Even the parties that attempted to assassinate King Veruna could not pull off something this big. I must inform the Queen immediately."

Before he could leave, Annabeth said, "I'll come too since I am the only member of her advisory staff present, even if I am just an assistant."

As they left, Annabeth whispered, "Try to find out as much as you can," before kissing my cheek.

Once again Obi-Wan looked uncomfortable at the display of affection while Qui-Gon just looked amused. "Master, we should inform the Council. They will want to hear mention of this Sith, immediately," Obi-Wan stated.

"Yes, they will, but unfortunately with both the Trade Federation and a Sith trying to find us, any transmission to the Council would be too risky. We will have to wait until we arrive at the Temple" Qui-Gon replied.

"Excuse me, now that you guys are all caught up with what Annabeth and I know and how, can someone just please explain what a Sith is?" I asked.

Qui-Gon gave me that smile again. It was starting to get annoying because it was like he was smiling at a joke that only he knew. "I highly doubt that we are caught up with what you and Annabeth know, particularly about who you are, where you come from, and your similarities and differences to Force-sensitives, but I suppose we can have that discussion at another time," Qui-Gon said before explaining, "The Sith are the ancient enemies of the Jedi. They are trained Force-sensitives like Jedi, but they are driven by anger, greed, and hate and will stop at nothing to gain power. They also go by the title of Sith Lord which could mean this man, the viceroy called lord, is also a Sith. However, according to Jedi records, the Sith have been extinct for a millennium."

"Oh, they sound like nice guys," I said sarcastically, "glad we have one of them after us." Though I was really thinking, here we go again, because these Sith sounded exactly like every Titan and Giant I ever faced, minus whatever this Force was. Hopefully, they didn't have the power of immortals as well because that would really suck. "What is this Force you guys keep mentioning?"

"I think that also is a discussion for another time because I'm sure Annabeth would also like to hear it," Qui-Gon replied. When I groaned in frustration and rolled my eyes, he just did that smile again and said, "Patience, young one." Realizing I wouldn't get any more answers out of the Jedi without having to provide some answers for them as well, I headed back to Annabeth's and my unofficial room to wait.

Annabeth found me an hour or so later. I have no idea how I managed to not break anything or blow up the ship in my boredom. "Come on," she said excitedly as she grabbed my arm and pulled me out the room, "I heard a pilot say we should be landing soon."

While we walked towards the cockpit, I told her about the Sith and asked her how her meeting with Queen Amidala went. "Well, she believes us and is taking this threat pretty seriously. We spent most of the time speculating who either has a grudge against the Naboo or would gain the most from the invasion. Even though the circumstances are not ideal, it's nice to be taken seriously. The Naboo are wise to recognize good insight no matter who says it. Back home, outside of our world, adults would always disregard what I said because of my age."

"I guess that is a benefit of having a fourteen-year-old elected ruler," I said with a smile. "Besides, the Naboo would have to have half a brain to not recognize your good advice." She smiled, and we shared a kiss.

* * *

I wasn't too impressed with my first look at Tatooine from space. The whole planet was various shades of tan, orange, and brown with none of the blue and green that Naboo or Earth had. "Are we sure humans can even survive on this planet?" I asked the cockpit in general.

"Oh, yes," Obi-Wan replied with his cultured accent, "though I do not envy any of the inhabitants and consider myself lucky that I will never be among them."

After a nerve-racking landing, at least for me, both Annabeth and I were excited to explore the new planet, and I finally would get off this confining spaceship. But, there was one problem.

"No, you cannot come," Qui-Gon said with his normal calmness.

"Please," I pleaded using my best baby seal eyes.

Qui-Gon just shook his head, apparently immune to my super powers of begging, "The spaceport is too dangerous. The fewer people that go the better."

"But why is Jar-Jar going then?" I asked sounding whiney even to myself.

"He is coming, so I can keep an eye on him. He would be a nuisance to Panaka and Her Highness if left on this ship."

"Then by that reasoning," Annabeth entered the argument, "Percy should also come, and I will come to make sure he doesn't do anything stupid. In case you haven't noticed, Percy doesn't do the best when confined to a small space for long periods of time. If he has to stay on this ship for a few more hours, you're going to have to replace a lot more than a hyperdrive generator."

"Is that a threat?" Qui-Gon asked, sounding amused by our antics now.

"Nope," Annabeth replied, "It is just a sound observation from past experiences. When Percy gets bored or remains in or around a transport for an extended period of time, things tend to accidentally blow up. Most of the time, it's not even his fault just bad luck I suppose. Do you know what the current count is, Seaweed Brain?"

"Umm," I thought, "I think I'm up to two buses, three cars, which are both different types of land transports on our home planet, an old military water transport, an ocean cruise ship though I was actually trying to blow up that one. . ."

Qui-Gon raised his eye brows, "That is an impressive trail of destruction for one so young, perhaps it's caused by whatever strange connection you seem to have with the Force. Very well, you can come if only to prevent further damage to the ship. However, Captain Panaka must agree to it as he is your guardian, and you will be responsible for keeping Jar Jar out of trouble. Captain?" he asked Panaka.

Panaka just shook his head at us looking slightly exasperated, "It is probably for the best that they go. I wouldn't put it past them to sneak out anyways." He was right about that. I was already trying to come up with possible escape plans. "Besides," he continued, "they are rather resourceful and always seem to be able to get things accomplished even if they use unconventional methods."

"Yes!" I fist pumped the air, "Thanks Panaka, you're the best!" I even gave him a quick hug and ran to get Annabeth's and my bags.

As I left, I heard Panaka say, "He must be really desperate to get off this ship."

 **Reviewer Questions:**

 **Yoitspercy - asked about frequency of updates. I will do my best to update at least once a week. I have a pretty solid outline through Episode II, so it might slow down some after that although I already have an ending planed out. I've never had a story stuck in my head before, and it's kind of annoying so ideally I would like to have it all written down as soon as possible.**


	10. I Swear a Solemn Oath

**Author Notes: Thank you for the reviews, favorites, and follows. Part 2 of today's update - sorry for any grammar and spelling mistakes. I was sleep deprived when I edited this.**

Chapter 10: I Swear a Solemn Oath

As soon as I stepped off the ship's entry ramp and onto the hot sands of Tatooine, I almost turned around and went back. If Naboo was like Elysium for me with all of its surface and underground oceans, then this planet was like Tartarus. I couldn't sense a single drop of water on the surface or underground, only a little in the air. But, if I searched deep enough I sensed an echo of a memory, like the land remembered a time when it used to be a vast ocean. "I forgot how much I hate deserts," I muttered, "And why in the name of Hades's underpants are there two suns?"

"Cheer up Seaweed Brain, it's better than drinking fire-water," Annabeth said brightly.

Unlike the desert in Arizona that housed the Junkyard of the Gods, this one was completely desolate. Not even those little hardy shrubs could survive here. We hadn't gotten far when Panaka's voice called out from behind us, "Wait, the Queen requests that you take her handmaiden with you." Our party, consisting of Qui-Gon, Jar-Jar, Blue the droid, Annabeth, and I, stopped and turned around as Panaka and Padmé approached from the ship.

"No, absolutely not. Bringing Percy and Annabeth is risky enough, and they seem to have experience in dangerous situations," Qui-Gon replied sternly.

"The Queen wishes it. She is curious about the planet," Panaka appealed.

Qui-Gon sighed, like he was tired of fighting, "Fine, but this is not a good idea, and you must stay close." Before we turned back around, Panaka gave Annabeth a meaningful look. I had no idea what it meant, but apparently Annabeth did because she nodded.

* * *

As soon as we reached the space port, Mos Espa, Annabeth started gushing about African architecture and how they managed to use the raw materials available. Meanwhile, I was trying hard not to be rude and stare at all the nonhumans I saw. Plus, I had to save Jar-Jar from being trampled twice. I was starting to realize that if I kept Jar-Jar out of trouble I wouldn't have time to make any of my own which was probably that old Jedi's plan.

We headed to one of the smaller junk dealers and were greeted by the shop owner who looked like a flying blue Muppet with weird hummingbird wings. The Muppet called out in a strange language, and a young boy with blond hair rushed into the room. As Qui-Gon and the shop owner headed to the back to look for the part we needed, Qui-Gon told us, "Stay here, and don't touch anything."

Gee, was it really necessary to say that last part? Like magic, I was suddenly filled with the irresistible urge to touch everything. While Padmé talked to the boy, Annabeth and I followed Jar-Jar into a small side room. Perhaps, I was taking my job of keeping Jar-Jar out of trouble a little too seriously, but Qui-Gon just had this whole wise, old mentor vibe going for him that made me really not want to disappoint him. Maybe, he just reminded me of Chiron.

"You know, Leo would have loved this place," Annabeth said sadly.

I wrapped my arm around her waist and gave her a gentle squeeze. "Yeah, he would be worse than a kid in a candy store. Actually, he would be worse than a Leo in a candy store. He would be running around like crazy, and before Qui-Gon came back, he would have built four explosives, some annoying flying thing, and a talking trashcan or something," I predicted.

"Really, only four explosives?" Annabeth said with a small laugh that became a soft sob.

"Hey," I said squeezing her tighter, "we don't know for sure that he actually died for good. He had that Physician's Cure, and besides if Thanatos found me annoying, there's no way he could stand Leo. He probably brought Leo back to life himself, just so he wouldn't have to deal with him."

I was rewarded with a small smile for my cheering up efforts, but we were interrupted by Jar-Jar activating a droid which leapt up and knocked over more broken droids. To stop any further chaos, I grabbed the droid by the neck, and turned to the boy, "Umm, sorry about the mess and all, but how do you turn this thing off?"

"Just hit the nose," the boy said. He gave me a look like that should be obvious. As soon as my finger pressed the nose, the droid collapsed on itself. I returned it to its original spot while Annabeth fixed the stuff it knocked over.

I grabbed Jar-Jar's arm before he could do any more damage and headed over to the boy. "Thanks for the help, man" I offered him my hand. "My names Percy Jackson. This clumsy Gungan," I lifted my hand with Jar-Jar's arm, "is Jar-Jar Binks, and the amazing girl over there," I indicated with my head, "is Annabeth Chase."

The boy shook my hand and gave me a smile that lit up his startling blue eyes, "Nice to meet you. I'm Anakin Skywalker." I decided right then and there that I liked this kid – maybe because his eagerness and enthusiasm reminded me of Tyson, or the way he fiddled with spare parts while he talked made me think of Leo.

"Nice to meet you too," I smiled back, "You must be pretty good at building and fixing machines and stuff?"

"Haven't come across anything that I couldn't build or fix!" he said enthusiastically. Then, he frowned "Although finding the parts I need can be hard around here, but if it wasn't for me, there's no way Watto's shop would still be open."

"That's pretty cool. I can barely touch anything without breaking it or blowing it up, so I try to avoid tinkering with mechanical things," I said, getting a laugh out of him. "But, Annabeth is pretty good at it when she wants to be. I think she has more fun designing things and actually coming up with the ideas than physically building it."

The rest of our conversation was interrupted when Qui-Gon stormed back into the room. "We're leaving," he said gruffly. Guess the bartering must not have went well.

"Bye, Anakin, maybe I'll see you around," I said as I pulled Jar-Jar along with me.

Anakin called out "Bye, Percy," before he and Padmé also exchanged goodbyes.

After we all followed Qui-Gon out of the shop, Annabeth asked, "What happened?"

"Buying this part just got a lot more complicated," Qui-Gon replied, "apparently, dealers on this Outer-Rim planet do not take Republic credits. Come, we must find a quit place for me to contact Obi-Wan and see if we have anything of value on board the ship."

Annabeth and I shared a look and lagged behind the rest of the group. "Can we use the drachmas in our packs to trade for the part?" I asked. "I'm sure Watto is too greedy to turn down pure gold."

Annabeth frowned as she thought. "I'm sure we could, Percy. I'm just not sure it's the best idea."

"What do you mean?"

"At the moment, the drachmas are still our best bet if we need to bribe an immortal to get home," she answered.

"But we don't even know if this galaxy has immortals. And, even if we did find one, there is no guarantee that they will accept drachmas." I reasoned.

"I know, Percy, but it's still the best idea I've got. And I can't help but think that with the language similarities, some immortal might have crossed over before us instead of fading or something. Maybe I'm selfish, but I'm just not ready to part with the main piece of that plan yet. It would feel too much like giving up on going. . . on going home." She teared up a little, and her voice broke on that last word. "Gods, I'm an emotional wreck, today."

I didn't care that we were in the middle of a street and could be trampled by alien dinosaurs at any moment. All that mattered was that Annabeth was hurting. I just wrapped my arms around her and let her rest her head on my shoulder. "Hey, it's okay to tear up every now and then. I mean we've even seen a few gods cry, and if the always perfect gods shed tears, then it must be okay for us lowly half-bloods too as well. After everything we've been through, I would be more surprised if you didn't cry. I know I have." Now, some guys might say admitting to crying made me unmanly and weak. But, I was never ashamed when I cried now because it reminded me that after everything I still cared. I was still human, well at least half. After my time in Tartarus, I realized just how precious and fragile that humanity could be.

"Plus," I added, "we've been ripped away from our peaceful, almost paradise only to go back to fighting for our lives with an evil lord chasing us to boot. We are even in a place with no decent water, again. It's bound to make emotions run high and bring up some painful memories. So, we will keep the drachmas, then and hope we can get back home before something really bad happens."

"How about we keep them for a day. If Qui-Gon hasn't come up with a way to get the hyperdrive generator by tomorrow, then we will use them," Annabeth declared as she lifted her head and started pulling me in the direction Qui-Gon had gone.

"Sounds like a plan, worthy of Athena."

* * *

We found the rest of the group tucked in an alcove just as Qui-Gon pocketed his commlink. I was pretty impressed with the old Jedi's sarcastic comment about having nothing of value when Jar-Jar said we would be robbed. Perhaps he wasn't as solemn and serious as he seemed to be. "Don't worry Jar-Jar, I'll stop the crazy beings before they get to the crunching you part."

"That would actually require you to keep up with the group, young one," Qui-Gon said as he walked back to the main street.

"And, the sarcastic Jedi strikes again," I muttered.

Within a few minutes of walking on the main street, I noticed that Jar-Jar had fallen behind. What now? I didn't even think that I could get into trouble this fast. Sure enough, I saw a food vendor yelling at him. As I walked back to get him out of this new mess, Jar-Jar spat something out of his mouth, and it landed in an alien's bowl. The alien had a snout like a Chinese dragon and arms and legs like a monkey. He leapt off the table and pushed Jar-Jar to the ground. I got there just as the alien grabbed Jar-Jar's throat. "Hey," I yelled, "he's sorry for being clumsy. Now get off him already. Besides, if you're looking for a fight you should at least pick someone who can actually fight, unless you're scared?"

Insulting someone who was holding your friend by the throat probably wasn't the smartest idea. But, I really don't like bullies, and it did distract him enough so that he released Jar-Jar. Just in case this bully didn't understand basic, I looked him right in the eyes and gave him my 'wolf stare,' the universal way of communicating, ' _No matter how bad you think you are, I'm worse._ '

The alien took a few steps back, looked at Jar-Jar then back at me before saying something in the strange local language and heading back to his table. As I helped Jar-Jar up, I told him, "See, I stopped it before it got to the crunching you part."

"Nevertheless, you need to be more careful," Qui-Gon lectured the Gungan as the rest of the group joined us.

"Wow," a familiar, excited voice said, "I've never seen Sebulba back down from a fight like that before. Usually, he likes turning people into orange goo. How did you scare him away, Percy?"

"Hey Anakin, good to see you again!" I told the boy, "As for avoiding the fight, an old friend of mine taught me a trick to scare away bullies."

"Cool, can you teach me?" he asked, reminding me of the first time I met Nico with all of his enthusiastic questions.

I laughed, "Maybe someday." Just then, my stomach gave a loud rumble.

"Are you hungry?" Anakin asked.

Annabeth just huffed at that, "Percy is always hungry."

"Then you should follow me," he gushed. "I know where the best pallies on the whole planet are."

I turned to Qui-Gon, but before I could bring out the baby seal begging eyes again, the Jedi said, "Fine, we will get some food. Just please, spare me that sad porg look." I had no idea what a porg was, but I took pride in knowing that even the old Jedi Master wasn't completely immune to the cute baby seal look.

Anakin insisted on buying the pallies with his own money from a kind, old woman who looked wrinkled enough to be one of the Fates. Even though I noticed no change in the weather, she warned Anakin that a storm was coming. Anakin insisted that there was no way we could make it back to our ship before the sandstorm hit, so he offered to let us stay at his place. It was a good thing we listened to him because within a few minutes sand was blowing everywhere, and we had to shield our eyes.

Anakin led us through a door that looked identical to the many orange doors around it, reminding me of apartments back home. "Mom, I'm home!" he called out, and a middle-aged woman with a kind face appeared from another room. She was one of those people who you took one look at and just knew she was a great mom. She reminded me so much of my own that I had trouble breathing. I felt Annabeth's arm wrap around me and tried to focus on that.

Next thing I knew, Anakin had grabbed Padmé's hand and turned to Annabeth and me, saying, "Come on, I want to show you the droid I'm building." We followed them down a hall, and when I reached the door, Anakin said, "Umm, Percy do you mind just looking from the door? 3PO isn't done yet, and I really don't want him to blow up."

Annabeth and I both laughed at his over exaggeration of my destructive abilities, "Sure, I'll make sure he stays outside of the Percy's Sphere of Destruction."

Anakin removed a blanket and revealed a humanoid droid with lots of wires showing. "He's a protocol droid to help mom," Anakin explained. He flicked a switch, and the droid came to life with his eyes glowing like dim flashlights.

"Hello, I am C-3PO human-cyborg relations," the droid said in a stuffy English accent that reminded me of my eighth grade English teacher. Annabeth was impressed and immediately started firing off questions.

After Anakin survived the hurricane known as Curious Annabeth, Padmé said, "He's perfect, Anakin," and Anakin's face turned redder than the sun god's sacred cows.

Annabeth and I returned to the main area of the apartment, and we overheard Qui-Gon say, "I know five extra mouths to feed is a lot. I should have brought rations, but I had planned on returning to the ship before nightfall."

"It will be fine. I'm sure we can make do." Shmi replied.

"Perhaps, Percy and I can help with that," Annabeth said when we reached the two adults. "We have some nonperishable foods from our home world." She swung her bag off her shoulder and rummaged around until she pulled out a can of baked beans and chicken noodle soup. She looked expectantly at me, so I looked through my bag and pulled out my SpaghettiOs and beef stew. On second thought, I pulled out the pack of Double Stuffed Oreos. "Really, Seaweed Brain?" Annabeth asked with that voice that sounds exasperated but amused at the same time. "Are they even still good?"

"Hey, after our first qu. . . I mean outing, it's kind of a tradition. These babies were the main course the first time you, the intimidating in a good way, genius girl, opened up to silly ole' me. Double Stuffed Oreos must have magical properties besides being insanely tasty." I peeled open the seal and popped one in my mouth. I couldn't help the groan, "Man, I've missed these. I kind of forgot they were in here, but they are definitely still good." Annabeth just smiled and rolled her eyes while also taking an Oreo.

Annabeth and I helped Shmi prepare the meal, and soon, we were all gathered around the table for dinner. The conversation started pleasant enough with a lot of comments about how good the food was and a few jokes, but it turned serious when Padmé said, "I still can't believe there is slavery persisting in the galaxy. Surely, the Republic's antislavery laws. . ."

Shmi interrupted, "The Republic doesn't exist out here. We must survive on our own the best we can."

"I just wish we could help you. What would stop you from coming with us on our ship?" Padmé asked.

"All slaves are injected with a transmitter located somewhere in their bodies," Shmi replied.

Anakin added, "I've been building a scanner to locate mine."

"But, as long as the transmitter is there, any attempt to escape. . ." Shmi continued.

"And they blow you up!" Anakin finished the statement and slammed his hand on the table for emphasis.

"Wait," I said as the meaning of the conversation finally clicked in my head. "Are you slaves?"

Shmi raised her head and looked me straight in the eyes. "When I was a girl, I was captured by pirates and sold into slavery. Watto won us in a bet several years ago, so now we tend to his shop."

I couldn't believe it. I was angry. I can't remember the last time I was this angry. If there was enough water in the apartment to have normal plumbing, I'm sure I would have already blown up the toilet. I stormed out before I could explode the little water the Skywalkers did have. I barely heard Annabeth call out for me as I left.

Outside, I hardly noticed that the sandstorm had stopped or the growing darkness as the last sun slipped under the horizon. I walked blindly down the street. I stopped and closed my eyes, struggling to control my power before it could destroy a nearby moisture vaporator. My power had automatically reared up with my anger, ready to attack whatever the threat was. But, I didn't know what that actually was. Maybe, I could confront that blue Muppet. I immediately dismissed that idea. It made my conscious squirm to go after a relatively harmless civilian even if he was too greedy and owned slaves. Besides, the problem was clearly much bigger than one flying Muppet. I probably needed to focus on these gangsters that ran this planet, the Hutts. They were the ones that most likely controlled the slave trade.

I felt power continue to build-up in my gut with my growing frustration until it felt like I was holding back the tide. I had to channel it somehow. I really didn't want another disaster on the scale of Mt. St. Helens, so instead, I tried to focus on the little bit of moisture in the air. My senses expanded as far as they could locking onto the water in the air. Then, I thought of all those tiny molecules flowing towards me and coming together making a stream. The pressure in my gut lessened as I pulled the water vapor toward me, willing it to trickle and flow like a liquid. I thought of the rivers and streams that fed the sea. I held out my hand, and a large ball of water started to form over my palm. I gasped and dropped to my knees as my power quickly drained, the toll of summoning so much water to me on such a dry planet.

Once I felt in control of myself again, I stopped drawing on the moisture in the air and just focused on manipulating the water above my hand. I shakily got to my feet and looked around. Luckily, no one was around to see my watery display. "Percy," I heard Annabeth's voice and swung my head around to see her jogging to me. "Thank the gods, I found you. I thought you might try to single-handedly storm the Hutts' palace."

I tried to give her a smile, but it felt more like a grimace. "The thought crossed my mind, but I didn't know where it was."

Annabeth gasped when she finally noticed the water around me. "Did you make that water?"

"I don't think 'make' is the right word. I think I kind of collected it from the moisture in the air. It was either that or blow up the moisture vaporator or let it all out like I did in Mt. St. Helens." Annabeth winced at that. "Do you have a bottle? Usually, I would let it go, but on a planet like this, it feels wasteful. This much water is probably a day's worth for Anakin and Shmi."

Annabeth nodded and quickly pulled out her empty water bottle from her pack. I manipulated the water into the opened bottle, and Annabeth returned it to the pack before reaching out to cup my face. "Percy are you okay?" Her storm-gray eyes looked deep into my sea-green ones as if she could peer into my soul and sooth all the things hurting inside of me. I brought my hand up and gently pushed back a strand of her blond hair behind her ear.

"Yes," I paused, "I don't know maybe? I'm not going to lose control and cause an earthquake or anything anytime soon, but I'm still mad." Annabeth let her hand drop so that she could squeeze mine comfortingly, and we slowly started walking back. "Anakin is so young and good and innocent that he reminds me of how Nico used to be. And Shmi is so much like . . . like mom," I managed to get out. "How could someone do that to them? How could someone do that to anyone? In this place where there are fancy spaceships and laser swords, how could something as backwards as slavery still exist? For eight months, we have been living in paradise, and here, Anakin and Shmi have been denied their most basic right."

Annabeth frowned. "It's terrible Percy, but there is no way you can blame yourself or feel guilty about the past. We didn't know. Gods, Padmé didn't even know, and she's been in this galaxy way longer than we have. Now, that we do know, maybe we can do something about it."

"Well, well, well, what have we here? Sebulba didn't mention that the scary human who threatened him was only a little boy," a voice rasped out in Basic. Two burly looking aliens stepped out of an alley and blocked the way back to Anakin's apartment. The larger one had three ridges protruding from his bald head, heavy brows, and a huge underbite that would be an orthodontist's nightmare. The smaller one had a large flat nose, wrinkly face, and many long braids coming from his otherwise bald head. Both were holding weird short staffs with four blades on one end and a curved end that looked more like a club though the big one also had a blaster on his hip.

"Run away, girl. We aren't here for you. We just need to teach this boy here a lesson. No one makes Sebulba look bad," the larger one said.

I snorted, "Good luck with that! I've been told I'm a slow learner." Without really thinking, I automatically pulled out Riptide and uncapped it. Next to me I saw Annabeth draw out her sword from her backpack. One day I would remember to ask her how that sword even fit in there. We both took a few steps away from each other to make sure we had room to maneuver.

"What a pretty little weapon," the chatty big alien said with his eyes on Riptide's glowing blade, "perhaps I'll take it as a trophy when I'm finished with you." With that, he charged.

I sighed, as I watched his wild, unbalanced approach. Guess this fight would be a quick one. He must usually rely on intimidation and brute strength with little actual skill. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the other guy foolishly charge Annabeth. When biggy got close to me, I dodged his wild swing and sliced at his upper leg. I had planned to give him a deep enough cut that should make it difficult for him to walk for a while, but Riptide just passed harmlessly through him.

Oh Styx, now I was in trouble! Apparently, even though the alien looked more like the monsters I fought than the human mortals back home, he was still technically a mortal, so the Celestial bronze couldn't hurt him. My confusion distracted me and gave my opponent time to swing the blade end towards my side. I barely managed to avoid the blow but moved right into the alien's punch. I flew back and landed hard on the sandy street with a groan. "Percy!" Annabeth yelled. I quickly glanced her way and saw her give the other Alien a cut on the arm followed by a knockout punch when he dropped his weapon. Clearly, Drakon bone did not have the same limitations as Celestial bronze.

Mr. Biggy was pretty confident now as he waltzed towards me, swinging his staff thing. I decided to play-up how hurt I was and pretended to fail at getting up. He grinned which just made his overbite worse, "Not so cocky now, are you?" He jabbed the club end at my gut, but I was way ahead of him and had already rolled to the side. I grabbed on to the middle of the staff as he bought it up and sprang to my feet. In one swift motion, I twisted my body and used the staff as a lever to throw the heavier alien over my shoulder. He landed hard on his back and let go of the weapon.

Yes, I might have stolen Annabeth's go-to move, but the look on the alien's face made it totally worth it. I expertly spun the staff thing. "Nope, I'm just as cocky now." I smirked at him. I knocked him out with his own weapon before he could reach for his blaster.

"Was the quip really necessary Seaweed Brain?" Annabeth asked. "After all, your smart mouth is what got us in this mess to begin with, as usual." When I gave her a confused look, she sighed, "Quip means a sarcastic comment."

"He started it."

"Why did you even let him hit you anyways?" she questioned as she gently touched my split lip.

I winced more in embarrassment than from the pain. "I sort of forgot that Riptide wouldn't hurt him since he is a sentient mortal even though he looked and more importantly acted like a monster."

"Sometimes, I think you will never learn. Just because someone tries to kill you doesn't automatically mean they are a monster." She pulled out her water bottle and poured some water onto a cloth from her bag. She dabbed at my lip with the damp cloth as the water slowly healed the small cut. After she wiped away any trace of blood, she reached up and gave me a kiss. "Better?"

"Much!"

We managed to make it back to the Skywalkers' apartment without any more incidents. When we sat back down at the table, everyone was just finishing up their food. Qui-Gon took in my rumpled appearance and sandy clothes. "What happened?" he asked me.

I just shrugged. "I fell." He snorted at my response which was by far the most undignified thing I had seen the old Jedi do. I looked at Anakin and Shmi and said, "I'm really sorry I ran out like that. I just got so angry when I realized that there's slavery going on in this galaxy and had to get some fresh air. I promise to do everything I can to help free you." Anakin's smile lit up the room, but Shmi just nodded sadly, like she knew better than to hope. The look in her eyes reminded me so much of Calypso when I told her I could come back for her on Ogygia. It was like she already knew that I wouldn't come back, that even though I meant well, I would forget about them.

I needed her to know that I was different from the other people that must have promised freedom in the past. I was one of the good guys, a hero. She could trust me. But then a small nagging voice that had haunted me ever since Tartarus asked, _'Are you sure you really are a hero? After all, you forgot about Calypso, you ignored Nico, and you just used Bob then abandoned him to the mercy of Hades. You are no better than the gods who just use people and discard them,'_ the voice accused.

No, I was different. I had to be. I wouldn't forget about Ani and Shmi. This time I would come back. They had helped us. But what about all those identical doors outside that must belong to other slave families? Could I just ignore them like the rest of this stupid galaxy did, just because they hadn't been useful to me? No, I wouldn't be like the gods who had ignored so many of their kids. These people had to know that they mattered even though they were slaves, that they weren't forgotten. Freeing these slaves couldn't be harder than battling Titans. I would just have to honor my word. I would make sure I had to come back this time. I only knew one way to make that happen. So, I took a deep breath and said, "In fact, after this current mission is done and everything is back to normal, I promise to do everything I can to free all of the slaves here. I swear–"

"Percy, no!" Annabeth interrupted.

"On the River Styx," I finished.


	11. Qui-Gon Finally Explains a Few Things

**Author's Note: If you skipped Chapter 9 you might want to go back and read it. It's my fault for posting two chapters back to back. As always, thanks for all the reviews, favorites, and follows.**

 _Previously: "In fact, after this current mission is done and everything is back to normal, I promise to do everything I can to free all of the slaves here. I swear–"_

" _Percy, no!" Annabeth interrupted._

" _On the River Styx," I finished._

* * *

Chapter 11: Qui-Gon Finally Explains a Few Things

"Maybe it didn't work," Annabeth suggested hopefully, "Since we are so far from home, there is no way Styx's power can reach us." I frowned. I hadn't thought of that.

Qui-Gon looked puzzled as he stared at me. "No, I think it worked if Percy was trying to make a binding oath of some kind. I've never seen or heard of anything like this before, but the Force seems to have bound Percy to his promise. I don't know who or what this Styx is that you mentioned, but I do know the Force. Both you and Percy are Force-sensitives even if you are more unusual than most. You can manipulate it to some extent. It is possible that the Force responded to Percy's intent when he swore the oath. I'm not sure exactly what will happen if he breaks it, but I know the consequences will not be good."

"In most cases, to break an oath on the River Styx is to condemn yourself to a fate worse than death," Annabeth said dryly. "What were you even thinking Seaweed Brain, making a sacred oath for an impossible promise? But of course, you weren't thinking. You never do." Her voice had raised to the danger level. She turned her stormy glare to Qui-Gon, "And don't you think it would have been nice of you to actually tell us what this Force thing is or that it responds to us before we accidentally used it?"

"Hey," I said getting her glare back on me, "you're mad at me, so don't go taking it out on other people. And for your information, I did think, and I am perfectly aware of the consequences. I thought about Nico and how I failed to protect him or even realize he was hurting and not accepted at camp because I got busy and didn't think about it. I thought about all those broken promises that almost got us killed last summer, like my promise to visit Bob or free Calypso. If this galaxy is our second chance, then I am not going to make the same mistakes. These people are being denied their freedom, Annabeth. They deserve more than just another empty promise. They deserve the chance to live their lives, and if I can help them in any way, then I will."

"What about your life, Percy? After what happened to Luke, how could you? I can't lose another person I love to a fate worse than death." she said before storming out of the room muttering, "stupid fatal flaw, self-sacrificing, hero complex."

I sighed and ran my hand through my hair. I did forget how fates worse than death might bother Annabeth after Luke literally became a puppet for the evil Titan Lord Kronos. I mentally shuddered. There really weren't many fates worse than that one. Once again, everyone at the table was staring at me. "Sorry about that. I probably should have handled it better. I promise Annabeth and I usually aren't so dramatic and angsty. It's been a rough few days. We thought we had finally found some peace and quiet, a normal life so to speak, only for our lives to just get uprooted, again. And, I guess with my oath, any hope of a normal life for the foreseeable future just went down the drain. It sort of brought up some old repressed feelings and memories. I should probably go find her and calm her down." I focused on Anakin and Shmi, "I guess after that explosion you kind of have an idea of what my oath actually meant and the stakes if I fail. I just want to let you know that no matter what happens, you are both worth it."

With that, I grabbed the rest of Annabeth's and my dinners, plus the remaining Oreos (I was going to need all the help I could get) and followed her up the stairs to the second-floor balcony. Whenever Annabeth was upset, she liked to be someplace where she could see the stars. Sure enough, she was there, sitting on the ledge looking up. "Hey, Wise Girl, I'm sorry." My mom always told me after a fight with Annabeth that I should apologize first because most likely Annabeth was right, at least to some extent.

I didn't get a response, so I placed her food next to her on the ledge. "I come bearing gifts, though warning you, I am Greek," I joked. That one did get a snort out of her.

"Did you just make a Trojan War reference, Seaweed Brain?" she asked.

"Yep, but I promise these gifts are really a peace offering." We ate the rest of our meal in a relaxed silence as we both thought about what we wanted to say to the other. When we were finished, I removed the dishes and held out an Oreo for her.

She gave me a small smile and took it. She played with it in her hand and said, "I understand why you did it, Percy. I really do. But does it make me a terrible person, if I say, I wish you hadn't?"

"No, of course not. I'm the one who just blurted it out like that. I should have talked to you about it first. I'm the Seaweed Brain who wishes for a normal life, gets us taken away from everything we know, and then foolishly throws that peaceful life away the first chance I get."

"You were right though, about slavery and broken promises," she sighed, "and even if you hadn't sworn on the River Styx. . . I know you Percy. We could have gone back to our life on Naboo after this crisis is over. But, with that fatal flaw of yours, you would not have been able to live a normal, peaceful life until at least Anakin and Shmi were free though your hero complex probably would have extended it to the whole planet if not the galaxy. I would like to think that my conscious wouldn't let me go back to my almost perfect life on Naboo either. That I wouldn't be able to ignore or forget about the slaves here." She slowly ate her Oreo while she thought. I could always tell when she was thinking because her eyes got this unfocused look while her mouth kind of pouted.

"All things considered though, your wording of the oath could have been a lot worse. Thankfully, you added the stipulation about working on this after Naboo is free, so I guess you did use that brain a little. You also promised to do everything you could as opposed to just promising to free the slaves, so maybe if you literally can't free everyone even if you try your best you will still be okay. And, you were a little vague on the location when you said you would free all the slaves _here_. Did you mean here as in Mos Espa or Tatooine? Please tell me you didn't mean the whole galaxy."

"Umm," I tried to think back. "When I made the oath, I was thinking about all the other slave families in these apartments, so I guess it technically might just be Mos Espa. But I feel like it would be wrong to at least not try to free all the slaves."

"Percy, when are you going to learn that you can't save everyone?" She glared at me. "Freeing all the slaves in the galaxy is impossible. Even back on Earth, slavery still existed, in various forms, in pockets all over the world. And, that was with it being illegal. Just freeing the slaves in Mos Espa though might be doable. However, it's not going to have the effect you think it will."

I frowned, "What do you mean? Thousands of people will have their freedom. It will affect them."

"Yes, but within two years max, thousands of people will lose their freedom, and there will be slaves here again."

"Oh, how do we make sure there won't be any more slaves then?"

"I'm not sure if ending slavery is even possible. We might have a chance if we just focus on the planet, but even then. . ." she trailed off. I gave her a confused look, so she went into explanation mode. "Freeing one or two slaves is relatively simple, but things get complicated if you try to free more, much less try to stop it all together. Slavery is an institution. It's not like the other enemies we've fought against. We can't just win a battle or slay a bad guy and end slavery. Even back home, it took four years of the deadliest war in the United States' history to officially end slavery, but we were still feeling the repercussions over a 150 years later. Although the Galactic Republic has pretty strict antislavery laws, there are reasons why they have turned a blind eye to it out here, probably a combination of needing the trade and hyperspace lanes the Hutts control, receiving bribes or kickbacks, and just not wanting to fight a war. So how are we going to end slavery on this planet without a huge army and several years of war?"

My heart clenched when I heard the word _we_. I sighed, "Annabeth, I was the one who swore the oath. You should stay on Naboo and become a famous architect. I don't want to take that away from you."

"No way, Seaweed Brain." She looked straight into my eyes. "Remember, we stay together even when one of us leaps into a pit without looking either literally or figuratively. Besides, it's the right thing to do, and there's no way you could do it without me."

"Well, you are defiantly right about that part. I couldn't do anything without my amazing Wise Girl, but together we can do the impossible. Gods, I love you so much." I pulled her close, and we kissed.

* * *

The next morning, it was Annabeth's turn to apologize for her behavior. "I'm sorry I stormed out last night. Percy and I talked it over, and I've realized that I want to help too. It may take a few years. We have to solve this current crisis on Naboo first and then figure out the most effective plan to hopefully end the practice of slavery on Tatooine. Plus, it would probably help if at least one of us learned to pilot a spaceship. But, we will come back. Percy's oath has guaranteed that."

"I'm glad someone will be able to devote themselves to this cause," Padmé added. "I wish I could do more, but my responsibility as a civil servant of Naboo is to always serve my home first. I'm sure when the time comes, the Queen will give you the resources you need to succeed."

"Thanks," Annabeth replied, "I have a feeling we are going to need all the help we can get." Then, she turned to Qui-Gon and asked, "Between Percy's and my immature temper tantrums last night, did you come up with a plan to get the hyperdrive generator?"

"Yes, apparently, Watto has a weakness for gambling in podraces," Qui-Gon explained. "So, we will offer him a wager that he cannot refuse. Anakin has built a very fast racer and is an excellent pilot. He has generously offered to give me his pod and to pilot it in a race tomorrow. All we need to do is convince Watto to let Anakin pilot in the race and to pay the entry fee for the race. To encourage Watto to agree, I will offer our ship as collateral for the entry fee. When Anakin wins tomorrow, Watto keeps the winnings, and we get our parts."

Wow, this was crazier than some of my plans. As a responsible almost adult, I probably should be worried about Anakin participating in a dangerous race. But, after years of seeing kids younger than him climb rock walls with spewing lava pits and racing around in chariots with lethal weapons and exploding Greek fire, my sense of danger for kids was a little skewed.

"And if Anakin loses, then Watto gets our ship?" Annabeth questioned. That didn't sound very good.

Qui-Gon nodded, "But, he will win." He gave Anakin a smile and a wink.

"I do not like this plan," Padmé stated. "It is far too risky. Surely, you agree with me, Annabeth."

"This plan is clearly not ideal," Annabeth speculated. "But, we don't have many options, and I do think that it will work. I trust your judgement when you say Anakin will win. I guess I just don't understand why you don't ask for more. No matter what happens it seems like Watto gets way more than we do, and it's not like he is exactly a nice person that I want to help get rich. If he really is addicted to gambling, we should use that to get more."

"Careful young one, greed is not a flattering trait and is highly discouraged by the Jedi. We will use these circumstances to achieve our goal and nothing more," Qui-Gon counseled.

"I did not mean more for ourselves, but perhaps we could use these circumstances to help others as well," she said coolly with a glance at Anakin and Shmi.

The Jedi frowned at that, "I wish we could do more, but we must stay focused on our current mission. Besides, with this wager, Watto has no reason to not accept it."

As we all walked to Watto's shop with Anakin running ahead of us, I asked Annabeth quietly, "And you really think this crazy, risky plan is better than using our drachmas?"

She shrugged, "Qui-Gon seems to think it will succeed. I think he might be using this Force sense, or whatever it is. If it doesn't work, we can still use the drachmas to hopefully get our group off this planet, somehow, though we might have to charter a ship. If it does work, maybe we can use the drachmas to help Shmi and Anakin."

"You would want to do that?" I asked hopefully.

She gave me a small smile, "Of course Seaweed Brain, though it might make going home harder, it would be worth it. Before, I figured Qui-Gon would come up with something to get the part, but we might be Shmi and Ani's only hope. I would rather them not have to wait years to be freed. Plus, I don't think we can go home until after you fulfilled your oath."

I winced, "Sorry again about that."

She shrugged. "Not much we can do about it now. Besides, I think I like knowing that when we do leave this galaxy, we will have left a lasting impact on it far greater than just a few cool buildings on Naboo."

It came as no surprise that the greedy, flying, blue Muppet agreed to Qui-Gon's wager since it really was a win-win for him no matter what happened. Watto even gave Anakin the rest of the day off to make final preparations on the podracer. I can't say I was particularly impressed with Anakin's pod at first glance. It didn't have the sleek, futuristic design I had come to expect from the high-tech transports I'd seen around Naboo. Instead, it was rusty with lots of wires and cables exposed and most of it looked like it had been wielded together. The basic design though wasn't too different than the chariots back home. The cockpit was like the chariot basket, and it was pulled by two engines as opposed to two horses.

I stepped forward to get a closer look, but Annabeth said, "Uh-uh Seaweed Brain, that's close enough. We have a lot riding on this pod, and today is not the day to test your control on not destroying things."

"But that's so not fair. I want to take a closer look." Anakin flipped a switch and purple lightning connected the two engines. "Oh wow! Can't I at least see the purple lightning?" I pouted.

"Nope, you stay over there," Annabeth replied as she pulled out Daedalus 2.0.

"But, Annabeth, I want to help too."

"You are helping by not blowing up the pod. You could always be our water boy, I suppose, and get us some water when we are thirsty," she said with a smirk.

I responded with the very mature, time-tested comeback of sticking my tongue out at her.

Anakin just laughed at our bantering before telling me, "If you really want to help, Percy, you can fetch us tools." His attention then turned to Daedalus 2.0. "What's that, Annabeth?"

"This is a very advanced, one of a kind, computer from my home world," Annabeth told him as she pressed a few buttons and shrank it to tablet form.

"Wow, it's the size of a datapad now! That's so cool. How did it do that?" Anakin excitedly asked.

"Umm, it's kind of a combination of condensing the material and using certain energies to alter a small pocket of space. But, right now we should take a look at your pod." Annabeth held the tablet out towards the pod and walked around it, creating a 3-D scan. After a few more taps on the screen, she rested the tablet in her hand, parallel to the ground, and a 3-D hologram of the pod floated above the screen.

"Wow, since when could Daedalus 2.0 make holograms?" I asked.

Annabeth just shrugged as she focused on the hologram. She waved her hand, and the hologram showed the inside of one of the engines. "I've been making a few upgrades since we arrived in this galaxy. After all Daedalus 2.0 is primarily built to adapt. Hmm, I really like what you did with the fuel injection, Ani. It's quite ingenious actually."

"Thanks! It gives the pod extra thrust making it the fastest pod ever!" he replied with a big smile.

Annabeth made the hologram zoom back out and focused on the cockpit. Whatever she saw made her frown. "But, it seems like the pod's computer and the controls won't be able to keep up with the extra boost from the engines which will cause you to stall 70% of the time."

"Yeah, I know." Anakin said sounding dejected. "Unfortunately, the wiring slows everything down. I tried every trick I could think of just to stop it from completely over heating and melting the wires."

"If I gave you a material that is a better conductor and won't overheat, do you think you could rewire the central section in time?" she asked.

"If I have some help, I should be able to do it though it might mean we don't get to paint it." He frowned at that. "Though I guess if it means I won't stall, then it would be worth it."

"Good, that's a wise decision." Annabeth quickly returned Daedalus 2.0 to its full size and after a few keyboard strokes bronze wiring started coming out of an opening on the side of the laptop.

"Umm Annabeth, is that what I think it is?" I asked.

"Yep, and it's coming out pre-cut to the needed length," she replied. At my incredulous look, she just smiled, "You really think a bunch of Hephaestus kids wouldn't put in an obnoxious amount of extra Celestial bronze wire in something they helped build." She did have a good point. The Hephaestus cabin loved their Celestial bronze wire.

The pod was finished just as the second sun was setting. Anakin had managed to rewire the pod with help from Annabeth, Padmé, Qui-Gon, and even Jar-Jar, which was totally unfair. When I complained about the clumsy Gungan being allowed to help while I couldn't. Annabeth just replied, "Jar-Jar didn't manage to blow up a bus with an antique canon that should have been completely unusable." There was just enough time for a quick paint job. I demanded that I should pick out the accent colors as my great contribution, so naturally I chose blue.

* * *

Thankfully, dinner was a lot less eventful then the previous night. We finished up the last of Annabeth's and my Earth food while Annabeth fired off endless questions about the Tatooine slave trade and the Hutts. Shmi and Anakin answered most of them, and Padmé and Qui-Gon occasionally chipped in what they knew. Afterwards, Shmi refused to let Annabeth and I clean up since we had helped her prepare the meal again, so we headed back up to the second-floor balcony to look at the stars.

I thought about everything we had learned regarding the Hutts. They were like a twisted combination of the mafia and the worst Roman emperors I could think of. These beings got a sick pleasure out of seeing the suffering of others and literally owned other people just because it made them feel powerful. These were the monsters Annabeth and I would have to go up against in order to fulfill my oath. Though the worst part was, they weren't the monsters we usually faced that would just poof into magical dust when killed and come back in a few years. No, I knew if I stabbed a Hutt with Riptide, it would just pass harmlessly through the giant slug's body because the Hutts were just mortal, though long-lived, sentient beings who chose to torture and terrify other people for fun. My stomach filled with dread as I realized something, "We are going to have to actually kill mortal people and other sentient beings, aren't we?"

"I'm afraid so, Percy." Annabeth responded. "I just don't see any way around it. These Hutts are just too powerful with too few morals and can send far too many assassins and bounty hunters after us. We won't survive to help anyone if we don't at least kill the people who try to kill us."

I sighed, "I really hated killing all those demigods in the Titan War. I had hoped that I would never have to spill actual blood again."

"I know Percy. It was hard for me too."

"Let's make a promise then. We have to make sure we don't lose ourselves to the bloodshed. We need to come up with a strict moral code, like we won't kill anyone unless we know for sure they are trying to kill us or harm others. And, if possible we will try to capture and send them to prison or something. I just don't want to become one of the monsters we are trying to stop. That time in Tartarus with Akhlys. . . that was too close. If it wasn't for you, I don't know if I could have stopped. I don't want to be like that, someone you would fear, and someone I would hate."

"That's a surprisingly good idea, Seaweed Brain. Together, we will help each other preserve our humanity." I wrapped my arm around her waist, and she rested her head on my shoulder as we thought about the future blood that would be on our hands.

Our gloomy thoughts were interrupted by Anakin's excited voice, "Hey, Percy, Annabeth, whatcha doing out here?" He walked over to us and looked at me expectantly.

"We were just looking at the stars though it's kind of sad because I don't recognize any of them. Back on our home planet, our astronomers formed constellations, and almost every group of stars had a story to go with them. So, whenever you looked up, it was like you got a bedtime story." Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Qui-Gon observing us from inside with a thoughtful look on his face.

"That seems pretty silly. I mean they are just big balls of gas light-years away. I think a lot of them have their own planet systems, and one day when I'm free and become a pilot, I'm going to see them all" Anakin said matter-of-factly.

He was just so enthusiastic. I couldn't help the soft laugh that escaped me. "I'm sure you will, Ani."

"Percy, will you tell them to me, the stories about your stars?" he asked. He hoisted himself up, so he could sit on the balcony ledge next to me. I noticed him wince slightly and touch his arm. He turned back to me with a hopeful face.

"Maybe later, but right now, I want to know, did you hurt your arm?"

Anakin grimaced, "It's nothing."

"Ani let us see." Annabeth said softly. "You don't want to be a Seaweed Brain like Percy who tries to pretend that he's not hurt, especially since you have the big race tomorrow."

"Oh, fine." He held out his arm and pulled back his sleeve revealing a small scrape that was still bleeding.

"And when did this happen?" Annabeth asked sternly as she examined the cut.

"I think when we were working on the pod, but I didn't notice it till later."

"Hmm, it needs to be cleaned out and bandaged. Percy, could you get our first aid supplies."

Before I could head inside, Qui-Gon stepped out. "I think I could help with that," the old Jedi said as he walked toward us and pulled out some kind of disinfectant wipe from his pocket. As he cleaned, Anakin's cut, Anakin quizzed him about all the star systems he knew. Qui-Gon finished Anakin's first aid treatment by pricking his skin with something then putting a small bacta patch on the cut. Just as he finished, we heard Shmi call out from inside the apartment that it was Ani's bedtime. Qui-Gon pulled out his communicator, and the small object he pricked Anakin with.

"What are you doing?" Anakin asked.

"I am checking your blood for infections," the Jedi replied casually, "You should go to bed now and try to get lots of rest. You have a big day tomorrow."

Anakin headed back inside with a quick, "Night Percy, Night Annabeth, Night Master Qui-Gon sir! And thanks for the help with the pod."

After he left, Annabeth look suspiciously at Qui-Gon. "What are you really doing with his blood? I think it's something more than just checking for infections."

Qui-Gon did his signature, annoying smile. "Very perceptive, again, young one. You are wise beyond your years. I'm going to have Obi-Wan use the ship's computer to analyze Anakin's blood sample through the comlink for a midi-chlorian count."

Annabeth immediately opened her mouth no doubt to ask what in the world these middle chlorine things were, but before she could ask, Qui-Gon chuckled, "Always so eager for answers, yet unwilling to give any yourself. How about we finally have this talk we've been dancing around these last few days? An even exchange of information, I'll answer all of your questions truthfully if you will return the favor for my own questions."

Annabeth and I looked at each other and had one of our silent conversations with facial expressions. Annabeth asked, _"What do you think?"_ with a look.

I replied with a shrug and a raised eyebrow, _"What do we have to lose at this point? He already knows we're different, and I think he could help us."_

Annabeth ended our discussion with a nod and turned back to Qui-Gon. "Sounds like a deal. Usually back home both, parties would swear on the River Styx, but I think we've had enough sacred oaths for now. Plus, we don't know if it will work on you, and I guess we trust you. You remind us of our old mentor from home."

"Very well, I will try to be worthy of your trust," Qui-Gon stated. "As a show of good faith, I will answer a few of your questions first. Midi-chlorians are microscopic life forms that reside within the cells of all living organisms. They are sentient and connected to the Force. Therefore, they form a symbiotic relationship with their living hosts and act as a link between the living being and the Force. Those with a greater number of midi-chlorians in their cells tend to be more sensitive to the Force. In fact, it is how the Jedi Order measures Force potential to determine whether a youngling will be trained as a Jedi or not. They must have a count of at least 7,000 to be accepted."

I frowned at that, "Wait your telling me you decide whether or not to let a kid join your mystic space police club based on how many of these microbe things he has? That just seems–"

"Percy," Annabeth's tone warned me to be polite and watch my language.

I tried to come up with a polite way to say stupid, "I mean it seems so Roman." Now, I'm not saying Romans were stupid. They were far from stupid, but they did have a lot of stupid laws.

"I am not familiar with that term," Qui-Gon said with a frown.

Annabeth rolled her eyes at me before translating Percy speak, "He means it seems like a rather rigid method to use. Like how can a microbe predict what a child will be like when they are older? Perhaps a being with fewer midi-chlorians is rejected, but she is a harder worker and kinder individual than another being who you accept into the Jedi Order just because she had more midi-chlorians in her cells but later turns out to be a terrible person who doesn't reach her full potential."

"I admit that it is not a perfect system, and there are occasional exceptions of course," Qui-Gon replied. "But, it has been rather effective for almost a millennium, and Jedi training starts very young, so we can hopefully prevent younglings from becoming terrible people most of the time"

"Just because you have done something for a long time doesn't mean it's right," I said thinking about the god's treatment of demigods before their promise to me after the Second Titan War.

Annabeth just sighed, "Now is not the time to be a rebel Percy, especially when we don't understand everything or even know what this Force is."

Qui-Gon looked at me with that x-ray gaze of his. "You are quick to judge Percy, but your statement is true. I do feel that some of the Jedi's traditions hold back the Order and that it has become stagnant. However, I am considered a maverick of sorts among the Jedi. As for the Force, it is an energy field generated by all living things in the universe. It flows through everything, binding the universe together. Force-users can feel the Force flowing through them and other beings providing them with wisdom, protection, strength, and the ability to manipulate matter and to some extent minds. As I mentioned earlier, it also can provide glimpses of the future to help guide you to the will of the Force. I am sorry that I was hesitant to explain this to you earlier, but once Force-sensitives become aware of the Force, their presence is usually easier to sense by other Force-users which could attract unwanted attention. Also, awareness can unlock your Force abilities. Both of these potential consequences would have been disastrous for our current mission. However, I have started to suspect that you are already aware, to some extent, of your powers as Force-sensitives though perhaps you do not credit the Force for these special abilities. Take your time to think about what I have said while I ask Obi-Wan to run this blood sample."

I could have thought about what he said for years, and I doubt it would make any more sense. Weird little microbes in us connecting us to some energy field that gave people super powers. Yeah, that's a little hard to swallow even after all the crazy stuff I had to accept as my reality over the years. Though the strangest and most confusing part was that these Force abilities sounded similar to demigod powers. I mean we were all naturally faster and stronger than mortals though some more so than others. Jason and I could manipulate specific matter around us. Annabeth and her siblings had an extra dose of wisdom, and Piper could basically manipulate people's minds. Plus, what Qui-Gon described happening to Force-sensitives when they found out about the Force was exactly what happened to demigods. As soon as we started to become aware of our godly heritage, our special demigod scent got stronger, attracting even more monsters and the attention of other gods. Both of which were usually very bad.

My thoughts were interrupted by Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon discussing the results from the midi-chlorian scan. Apparently, Anakin's midi-chlorian count was off the charts, the highest Qui-Gon had ever heard of. "Does this mean that Anakin can become a powerful Jedi?" Annabeth asked.

"Yes, it does though it also brings up many other questions for me to ponder," the Jedi replied with a frown. "In the meantime, may I scan your blood for midi-chlorians? I am curious what the count will reveal for both you and Percy."

I could tell Annabeth was conflicted, "I'm not going to deny that I'm burning with curiosity to know what your scan will reveal about us, but you have to promise to destroy our blood as soon as the scan is done." Qui-Gon looked confused, so she clarified, "Let's just say the last time someone got a hold of Percy's and my blood they did something really bad with it. Our blood can have strange effects on things, so it's better to not leave any of it lying around."

I snorted at that. Yeah, enemies using our blood to raise a powerful primordial bent on destroying the world was really bad.

Qui-Gon nodded. "I suppose that's an understandable concern if a little strange, but you have my word that after the analysis your blood will be destroyed." He then pricked both Annabeth and my arms with some sort of blood collector and inserted Annabeth's into the comlink. "Obi-Wan, here is a sample of Annabeth's blood, could you scan for midi-chlorians please?"

After only a short pause, we heard Obi-Wan's voice over the comlink, "Master, there must be some mistake. . . The reading is showing no midi-chlorians. That's impossible!"

Qui-Gon frowned, "Yes, it is. Perhaps, it was just a bad sample." He removed Annabeth's blood from the comlink and replaced it with mine. "This is Percy's. Try a full analysis on this one."

We waited a full minute before Obi-Wan replied, "Master, I do not understand these results. Once again, there is no midi-chlorians. How is this possible? We both can feel their presence in the Force even if it is a bit unusual. They both seem to be powerful Force-sensitives, yet both have zero midi-chlorians. Also, the DNA for this blood sample. . . only 50% of it is human. The rest is composed of some unidentifiable matter. Even if he was a hybrid, the computer would be able to recognize the DNA of any species that can interbreed with humans. I don't mean to be rude, Percy, but what are you?"

 **Author's Note: Honestly I didn't want to end this chapter here, but it had gotten too long. Plus, I know the next part is going to be very controversial, and I need to mentally build up courage before I post it. I promise lots of action in the next chapter.**

 **Also, for anyone wondering about my choice for a legal adulthood age on Naboo, I found it in the "Legend" side of the Naboo (people) Wookipedia page in the politics section.**


	12. I Get a Headache

**Author's Note: I cut this chapter short just so I could post something since it's almost been a month. Unfortunately, this means the promised action got pushed back to the next chapter which is mostly written, so I should be able to update within a week. As always, thanks for all the reviews, favorites, and follows. Sorry for the long delay. Hopefully, I can go back to weekly updates.**

 _Previously: "Even if he was a hybrid, the computer would be able to recognize the DNA of any species that can interbreed. I don't mean to be rude, Percy, but what are you?"_

* * *

Chapter 12: I Get a Headache

"Yes, that seems to be the most pertinent question at the moment," Qui-Gon stated coolly, as he ejected my blood sample from the comlink and did something to both collectors that made them hiss. "Thank you for all of your help tonight, Obi-Wan. I will fill you in on what they tell me later."

He focused his piercing eyes on us. "Now, Percy, Annabeth, I have answered your most pressing questions and destroyed your blood as you requested. I would like you to answer some of mine. Who and what are you really and how did you end up on Naboo eight months ago? I doubt it was because of a spaceship accident in a wormhole." Well here goes nothing. Annabeth and I shared a look and agreed to tell him the whole truth about the nature of our parents and what really happened that day we came to Naboo.

For most of our story, Qui-Gon kept his eyes closed. He was probably using his Force sense to see if we were lying. When we were done, Qui-Gon opened his eyes and stated, "Well, I sense your honesty in the Force though it always seems more difficult with you two than it should be. You at least believe what you say to be truthful. However, as far as I know, there are no such beings as gods. There is only the Force. Many primitive societies have confused powerful Force-users for gods though your tale is still rather perplexing."

Annabeth frowned at that. "I'm clearly not familiar with the full extent of the power of Force-users, but are they immortal?"

"Some Force-users can have extremely long lives. Yoda, the Grand Master, is nearly 900 years old, and the oldest Force-user we know of lived to be over 2,000 years. This is one reason why cultures have worshiped Force-users in the past." Qui-Gon explained as if we were very young children.

Of course, this annoyed Annabeth, so she fired back, "The gods, including my mother and Percy's father, are approaching 4,000 standard years. They can be wounded and have their essence scattered so that it takes a millennium to reform, but they do not die unless their domains of power are destroyed or the mortals, what we call normal humans, no longer value their spheres of influence in which case they fade from existence."

Qui-Gon looked stunned. "That is indeed most unusual. There are a few beings scattered throughout the galaxy that are naturally deeply connected to the Force and rumored to be immortal with powers greater than any Jedi or Sith. I believe I may have even met one of them, but they do not seem to be linked to any civilization or other beings, only the Force."

Annabeth starting pacing along the balcony. She always paced when she was trying to figure out a particularly difficult problem. "Hmm, I'm not saying the gods aren't connected to this Force somehow. . . Both you and Obi-Wan keep mentioning that Percy and I have an unusual presence in the Force. What is different about it?" Annabeth asked. I could tell she was slowly trying to put something together but wanted all the facts first.

"The most obvious difference is that we can only sense you when we are a few meters away," Qui-Gon explained. "Normally, a competent Force-user should be able to sense a Force presence as strong as yours and Percy's as long as he is on the same planet if not an even wider range. A trained Force-user can learn to hide his presence, but neither of you seem trained, at least in the traditional sense. I could sense Anakin's Force presence as soon as we entered the system although his location was difficult to pin-point. Another difference is that it is very difficult to read your intentions in the Force. Whenever I try, I feel like I am listening on a bad comm connection. The source of all these differences may be that you seem to channel the Force from an inner source, like you are right now, Annabeth. In contrast, most Force-users harness the Force by drawing from the surrounding energy which tends to project out and leave small echoes in the surrounding Force. Even those with a more powerful Force presence collect the Force around them, as opposed to producing it from some inner source. What you are doing right now is quite remarkable. Most Jedi would need to be in deep meditation to reach the level cognition you seem to have achieved based on my limited sense of your Force-use, and I doubt I would even be able to sense it at all if I was not so close to you."

She stopped in surprise. "You mean I am using this Force right now?" Qui-Gon nodded. "But I'm just thinking," she stated. "How could I possibly be channeling some strange energy? Unless. . ." She turned to me. "Percy could you use your powers like you did last night?"

"Umm, I think so, but maybe not as much. I was really worked up last night," I replied.

"That's fine," Annabeth stated, "Master Qui-Gon see what you can sense in the Force when Percy uses his power."

I closed my eyes and focused on my water sensing radar. I then imagined all those water molecules in the air flowing to me and felt a familiar tug in my gut. I cut off the connection before the tugging got too uncomfortable. I had about a cup of water in my outstretched hand.

"Incredible," Qui-Gon muttered as he examined the ball of water floating above my hand. "I have never heard of a Jedi summoning individual water molecules from the moisture in the air. Theoretically, it should be possible with the Force, but the amount of concentration and will it would require, to collect and then change the phase of the molecules, would be difficult for even the most experienced Jedi Masters. Again, there was no draw on the surrounding Force, but this time I could feel you release the Force as you searched for and gathered the water in the air. However, the Force was concentrated on just water and seemed extremely focused."

I didn't have a bottle for the water, and I was feeling kind of thirsty. So, I waved my hand in a circular motion, and the water responded so that it looked like it was in an invisible cup. Then, I drank it. I would not recommend drinking water that you are manipulating. It gives you a nasty headache, but I guess that also could have been all this Force talk.

Annabeth had returned to her pacing. "I think I might have a hypothesis of sorts though it sounds crazy and not fully developed, but it's the best I have at explaining all of this. One last thing, Percy can you bring out Riptide."

"Umm, sure, but why?"

"To test a theory." She turned to Qui-Gon. "Percy's going to bring out his sword. It's made out of a magical metal from our world called Celestial bronze." Qui-Gon raised an eyebrow at the word magic, and Annabeth shrugged. "Yeah, maybe there is a scientific or Force based explanation for it, but back home there were things that we just called magic, like Percy's sword, my invisibility cap, and some of my laptop's capabilities. Anyways Celestial bronze can cut through almost any non-magical substance including droids apparently, but it only harms beings that are somehow connected to the gods on our planet at least as far as we know. The blade will just pass through any normal human or sentient being as Percy found out last night when a couple of nonhumans attacked us. I'm curious Master Qui-Gon, if the blade will just pass through you as well. Or, perhaps Celestial bronze has been sensing this Force the whole time, and our definition of its properties was wrong. Perhaps, it actually only harms Force-sensitive beings, and we just didn't know the difference because everyone associated with our gods are Force-sensitive."

"Interesting theory, I am willing to test it," Qui-Gon stated and then looked at me expectantly. I brought out Riptide from my pocket. Qui-Gon frowned at the sight of the pen. I uncapped the pen, and the blade appeared. Qui-Gon raised his eyebrows, "Impressive, and I thought lightsabers were compact and convenient to carry." I handed him the sword, hilt first. He gripped the leather wrapped hilt and expertly examined the blade, getting a feel for its weight and balance. Then he carefully placed his thumb at the blade's edge and gently pressed. He pulled his thumb away, and we all saw the drop of red blood pooling at the tiny cut. He handed Riptide back to me and whipped the cut with one of his disinfectant wipes.

"That is quite an elegant weapon, Percy," Qui-Gon admired. "But, if I understand its properties correctly, this sword will not be able to harm the Hutts or most of the beings that serve them if negotiations to free the slaves go poorly."

"Umm, Yep." I replied sheepishly. "There's a reason that she calls me Seaweed Brain." Qui-Gon just shook his head with a small smile. "But, what does this mean that Riptide works on Jedi?" I asked Annabeth, feeling even more like a Seaweed Brain than normal.

She shrugged, "Well it supports my hypothesis, but I'm still not sure of everything. There are still a lot of holes in it and things that overall just don't make sense. Most people here and back home will probably say this is wrong and impossible, but like I said before it's the only explanation I have."

"Sounds like you have more figured out than I do, like usual, so please do your explainy thing, Wise Girl" I begged.

"Very well, firstly, I think Nemesis, the goddess that brought us here, opened an interdimensional portal that day. So, we're currently in an alternate universe to our own. This could explain our difficulty finding our home planet and the reason your sensor can not detect our midi-chlorians that you claim every living thing in the universe has. I assume you scan for the exact chemical composition of the midi-chlorians in order to distinguish them from other microbial forms?" Qui-Gon nodded. "According to the parallel universe theory, beings from different universes could have undergone different evolution paths, so maybe we do have something similar to midi-chlorians in our cells, but they have a different enough chemical composition to not register in your scan. Percy's sword however seems quite effective at detecting Force-sensitives somehow. Although it's from a different universe, it still was able to cut Qui-Gon even though he doesn't seem connected to any of our mythology which makes me think, Percy, that our whole crazy ancient Greek world is somehow connected to the Force. I mean the only real common denominator between us and Qui-Gon, that I know of, is this Force-sensitivity, so perhaps Riptide uses Force-sensitivity to distinguish us from regular mortals."

"But Annabeth, if we're from a different dimension then how do we even know if there is this Force back home?" I asked.

"We don't. It's just a hunch that I have mainly because of the similarities between the abilities of Force-users and demigods." She turned to Qui-Gon and asked, "What are some specific things that Jedi can do with the Force?"

"Well, there's telekinesis that we use to work on our control and focus in the Force," the Jedi explained. "It's also useful when negotiations fail, and a fight breaks out."

I interrupted. "So that's how you made that droid fly back in the hanger on Naboo."

"Yes, it was. Jedi call that a Force push. The Force also enhances our strength and agility, giving us extra height on leaps and making it possible to do complex flips in combat. Also, it enhances our reflexes giving us an almost precognition of sorts to predict blaster bolts, or an enemies sudden strike with a lightsaber."

"That sounds sort of like our natural battle reflexes as demigods although the mortals labeled it as ADHD, a learning disorder," I said. I thought back to how Annabeth had first explained it to me all those years ago. "Our heightened senses make it, so we're restless and see too much which makes it difficult to focus in normal school."

"Yes, I can imagine without proper training the extra awareness the Force provides could be a problem. That is why meditation is one of the first lessons for younglings in the Order to help them learn how to focus."

"Demigods also have enhanced strength and agility," Annabeth added. "When he was twelve, Percy managed to leap on the back of a seven-foot-tall, sorry I mean over two meters, monster and slay it. Both of us also managed to land a 100-meter drop, and Percy was able to leap a 6-meter chasm while carrying me. Before, we always thought it was just extra strength from our adrenaline and our godly heritage, but maybe, our godly heritage is somehow connected to the Force. As far as I know though, only children of the air god can lift things without touching them and do something similar to a Force push."

"Yeah, funny thing though, I think I might have done something similar when I was twelve." I said. "Right before I found out about everything, Gabe, my ex-step-father, made me so mad that I somehow made the front door slam on him when I was standing several ya- I mean meters away. I was never able to figure out how I managed that one."

Qui-Gon frowned. "Young Force-sensitives can sometimes accidentally perform Force pushes during times of high emotions. It is also why we teach our younglings how to control their emotions early on. Using the Force in anger leads to the dark side."

"Interesting," Annabeth mused. "Maybe, we could learn some of these typical Force-user's techniques. It will probably be more difficult for us since most of our Force power seems channeled to our parents' spheres of influence. I know all of this is kind of unorthodox, but since we're talking about a parallel universe is it possible that the Force works a little differently where we come from?" She directed her question towards Qui-Gon.

"I am not familiar with any actual parallel universes. We have theories of course, but as far as I know anything is possible in an alternate dimension."

"But Annabeth, why are we connected to this Force at all?" I asked. My headache had gotten much worse. How in the world were we linked to this mystic energy field from a different universe?

"No one really knows how the gods formed, Percy. I mean we know they came from the Titans who are the children of the Primordial gods, but how did they first come into existence?"

My head felt like it was going to explode as I realized where she was heading. "Wait, so your saying my dad is actually this Force thing?"

Annabeth shook her head, "Not exactly. My theory is that all the gods and Titans formed from the thoughts and beliefs of mortals. I think back in the ancient times the people believed so deeply in the idea of the gods that maybe the Force or our version of it somehow made them a reality and gave them an actual existence."

Qui-Gon sighed. "As hard as it is for me to believe, your theory does seem to answer all the questions, like why you and Percy seem to have an unusual connection to the Force. You don't draw your power from the surrounding Force because you have inherited your own power core, for lack of a better word, from your completely Force generated parents, manifested from highly concentrated thoughts of sentient beings if your theory about these gods is correct. It does explain Percy's strange DNA, and since this power core is from your godly parent that is tied to a specific domain, your Force usage is mainly channeled to those particular abilities and attributes, once you become aware of your heritage. The Force additionally enhances your reflexes and physical strength. Annabeth's Force usage is focused extensively on enhancing her mental capabilities and general cognition since your mother's sphere of influence is wisdom while Percy's is concentrated more towards water since your father is associated with the sea. Because of the somewhat limited nature of your Force application and since you do not draw on the surrounding Force like a normal Force-sensitive, you are difficult to sense."

Annabeth just shrugged. "It's my working theory at the moment."

"I assume you did not tell Panaka any of this?" Qui-Gon questioned.

I snorted, "Yeah that conversation would have gone well, 'Hey, Panaka we were sent here by a magical portal, and BTW we're half-gods."

Annabeth just rolled her eyes at my sarcastic response. "Given the circumstances and how vulnerable we were in an unfamiliar world, we thought it would be best if we actually told the officials on Naboo a story that they would believe. We were lucky that Panaka decided to adopt us, but I think he has always known there was something a little different about us."

"I do admit," Qui-Gon stated. "Your whole story does seem rather outlandish, but I have come to accept that the Force works in mysterious ways. However, as I told you on the ship, I am rather open-minded. Most of the Jedi Council would never accept this explanation. Frankly, I'm not sure what they would make of you at all. You are a contradiction to many of our principles, and they will not like that. Just the fact that you use the Force and yet have no midi-chlorians would cause a few of the traditionalist on the Council to faint. Your lack of midi-chlorians suggests that we have perhaps relied too heavily on a midi-chlorian count to determine Force-sensitivity, and in our overconfidence, we have underestimated the great mystery that is the Force." He laughed, "No, those Council members will not like it at all."

"Do you think you could try to teach us some of your techniques in the Force?" Annabeth asked, always eager to learn something new, "though I know it will be difficult for us."

Qui-Gon frowned, "I'm afraid the Jedi Council would never allow it. Even without your unusual circumstances and apparently divine origins, you are far too old for the Jedi Council to ever approve your training. Though maybe I could teach you a few of the basics, especially meditation techniques. I think you would both benefit from that." Although, he said both he was definitely looking at me.

"Umm, I don't know about that," I said. "Percy and meditation are things that just shouldn't go together, like Annabeth and playing hooky."

Annabeth just rolled her eyes, again. "That will be the day. Tartarus will sprout daisies before Percy sits still long enough to meditate." She focused on Qui-Gon and asked, "Even if the Jedi Council won't approve our training, do you think they will help us get home?"

"I think they will try, if only to get you out of this universe before you can shatter anymore of our millennia old doctrine," Qui-Gon mused. "However, as I mentioned before, we have never achieved interdimensional travel at least to my knowledge though we never had a reason to try to do so before. Also, the Jedi do have extensive archives. We may be able to find something in there to help. Although all things considered, I think your presence here is the Will of the Force. When you have accomplished what you were sent here to achieve, I truly believe the Force will guide you back home."

I frowned, "So we just wait here for this all-powerful mystical energy to beam us back home?"

Qui-Gon did his annoying smile. "As I said before my young friend, the Force works in mysterious ways, perhaps even in the form of this being who sent you here, especially if she truly is a manifestation of the Force. This um goddess," Qui-Gon hesitated at that word, "what is her sphere of influence?"

"Nemesis is primarily the goddess of revenge, but it also extends to balance," Annabeth answered.

Qui-Gon frowned, "That is most interesting and possibly troublesome."

"Why? What does it have to do with us getting stuck here?" I asked.

"I am beginning to suspect it has everything to do with why you were brought here. Now that we know the Sith are not extinct thanks to your dream, Percy. I'm sure the Sith would like nothing more than to take revenge on the Jedi for nearly wiping them out a thousand years ago. Meanwhile, the Jedi greatly wish to bring balance to the Force. I highly doubt it is a coincidence that the sphere of influence of the goddess that brought you here just so happens to include the greatest desire of the Sith and the greatest hope of the Jedi."

Annabeth started her pacing again as she thought about Qui-Gon's words. "Hmm, it does explain why Nemesis could send us to this particular dimension even though it seems out of reach for the other gods. But, what do you mean when you say the Jedi want to bring balance to the Force? It appears to me that the imbalance in the Force is in your favor since there seems to be more Jedi in the galaxy than Siths. I assume there can't be too many Siths if they were able to hide from the Jedi for a millennium."

"You just described an imbalance in Force-users in which the Jedi do seem to thankfully have the advantage. However, I'm afraid the Force is a very different matter. Thousands of years ago, there was only the Force, no dark side or light side, and no Sith. No one knows what happens, but the Force was tainted somehow with darkness. A rouge Jedi decided to explore this new darkness in the Force and soon succumbed to the worst emotions sentients can experience: anger, fear, hatred, and aggression. He discovered that he could wield greater power when he allowed these dark emotions to fuel his actions. The Jedi banished him, but they did not understand the great temptation of this new facet of the Force. Soon, the exiled Jedi had amassed a large following, and the Sith order was established."

"So, does that mean this dark side of the Force is stronger?" I asked.

"Yes and no," was Qui-Gon cryptic reply. "It all depends on how you define strength, I suppose. In a straight duel for example, the dark side is known to provide its practitioners with very powerful and ruthless attacks, but it does leave them vulnerable to their basest desires which caused much infighting in the Sith Order and allowed the Jedi to win many Sith-Jedi wars in the past. In contrast, the light side of the Force and the Jedi teachings give us the strength to do what is necessary for the greater good even at the sacrifice of ourselves. This is what ultimately gives us an advantage over the Sith. But, ever since the birth of the dark side, Jedi must constantly resist its pull. This continuous temptation to give into the easy path of the dark side for greater power is the imbalance in the Force. To try to combat this temptation, the Jedi Order has developed a strict code. The code seems to work to some extent, but our ultimate goal is to return the Force to its natural, balanced state. It was believed that this could only be achieved when the last of the Sith was destroyed by the one prophesized to bring balance to the Force. Now that we-"

"Wait! Did you just say the P-word that must-not-be-said?" I interrupted. "Out of all the places we could have been magically zapped to," I groaned, "it just had to be the one with some big important prophecy."

At Qui-Gon's confused look Annabeth explained, "Back home we have an oracle that delivers prophecies that guides us in our quests or missions so to speak, but she often predicts death, betrayal, or the likely end of the world. Ever since he was 12, Percy had this great prophecy hovering over him that said he would either save or destroy the world. When he turned 16, Percy fulfilled the prophecy and managed to save the world, only for both of us to immediately be included in another great prophecy that we almost didn't survive. So, you can understand why the mention of another prophecy might be a little troubling. What exactly is this prophecy? The wording can be very important, but even then, they are nearly impossible to interpret before they come to pass."

"Well, the exact words have been lost to time and legend, but it predicts the coming of a powerful Force-sensitive that will destroy the Sith and bring balance to the Force," Qui-Gon stated.

"Yeah that's not good," I warned. "If you guys don't even have the exact words and are relying on some really old interpretation, then there is no way it's going to happen just like that. Prophecies are never that simple."

"Perhaps," Qui-Gon mused. "For centuries we assumed it was just a legend because we thought the Sith were extinct. Many Jedi have spent years meditating to discover a different way to bring balance to the Force. However, since the Sith have probably existed in secret for a thousand years this prophecy could still come to pass. But, back to my original concern about your purpose here. It seems that this goddess Nemesis must have brought you to this universe for a specific reason, but the question is, are you here for revenge or balance?"

 **Author's Note: Sorry if you don't like how I connected the demigods to the Force. It really shouldn't come up again, so hopefully you will continue reading.**

 **Also thanks to HaywireEagle for correcting my spelling of "Yeah." Please let me know if you find any other errors.**


	13. Annabeth Plays Super Spy

**As always, thanks for all the reviews, favorites, and follows. Sorry for the long delay.**

Chapter 13: Annabeth Plays Super Spy

The next morning, we all got an early start. Qui-Gon went ahead to the arena before the rest of us. He said he had to settle some business, whatever that meant. He took Jar-Jar with him to keep the Gungan out of trouble. The rest of us helped Anakin get his pod ready to move to the arena. Since I still wasn't allowed near the pod, I was stuck watching the animals that would pull the racer to the arena. Anakin called them Eopies. They looked like a cross between a camel and an elephant with the coloring of a hairless baby mouse. I'm not sure what they ate, but their farts smelled worse than the breath of Laden, the Dragon of Eternally Bad Breath.

We managed to arrive at the arena without incident and entered a preparation area below the stadium seating that reminded me a little too much of the hypogeum beneath the Colosseum. As we approached Qui-Gon, the blue Muppet shouted at the Jedi, and then flew towards us. Watto spoke to Anakin in Huttese before flying away. Even though I didn't understand a word Watto had said, I knew by Anakin's frown that it wasn't flattering.

"What'd he mean by that?" Anakin asked Qui-Gon when the Jedi reached us.

"I took Annabeth's advice and used Watto's weakness for gambling to ask for more." He replied with his typical cryptic answer.

While the others wished Anakin luck or in Padme's case glared daggers at Qui-Gon for doing more gambling, Annabeth and I sized up the competition. All of the other pod racers were much bigger than Anakin's, and Anakin seemed to be the only human pilot. I noticed my buddy, the Chinese dragon-monkey, that sent those aliens to beat me up. I started to head over there, but Annabeth grabbed my arm and dragged me back over to Anakin. "No, you don't, Seaweed Brain. Now is not the time for confrontation."

"But he tried to have us beat up," I whined. "Plus, I wasn't going to do anything, just talk."

Annabeth ignored me and turned her attention towards Anakin. "Now, Ani remember your pod is built for speed, so you need to strategize accordingly. Most of these other racers are much larger than yours so don't let them ram you. With the modifications we made, your controls should be able to keep up with the extra thrust so there should be minimal lag time. Also, you remember the new start sequence?"

"How could I forget," Anakin huffed. "It's only two switches and a button now, so there should be no stalling."

I could tell Annabeth was starting to make the kid nervous. I stepped in before she could say anymore. "It's okay Ani. Annabeth wishes all her friends good luck by reminding them of strategies and nagging them about lots of little details. What she means to say is you got this, just trust your gut. I would wish you luck, but I know you don't need it." I gave him a wink.

"Thanks Percy!" He headed out towards the starting line with his pod while Padmé, Annabeth, and I found our designated, fancy seating lift.

The stadium was huge. I had only been to the MetLife stadium once when Paul took me to see a Giants game for some guy bonding time, but this looked like it held more spectators than even that NFL stadium. All the seats were full, and there was a two headed announcer guy introducing all the racers in Huttese and Basic. Then, a trumpet fanfare rang throughout the stadium. The announcer cried out, "Jabba the Hutt."

I looked up towards the large dome at the center of the stands and got my first look at a Hutt. Now, I've literally seen pigs fly, but Jabba was definitely in the top five weirdest beings I'd ever seen. The mobster was a giant upright slug with arms and too many chins to count. I saw another smaller slug behind him and assumed it must be the other one, Gardenia or something like that.

Annabeth gasped, "They are both here! And it looks like they brought most of their retinues."

"Umm, Annabeth why do you have that _I'm-planning-something_ look again?" I asked slightly worried.

"I was just thinking that practically everyone in the city including both Jabba and Gardulla are here, with what looks like their best guards and advisors because they were trying to one-up each other. Now would be a good time to sneak into their town houses that Anakin mentioned last night at dinner. We could get some information on them and maybe plant some recording devices. If we are going to take down these Hutts one day, we need to know who their enemies and allies are and what they are planning. I need a lot more information before I can come up with a good offensive strategy against them"

"Umm not to point out the obvious, but we don't even know where these houses are. Plus, how are you going to get that information?" I asked.

"Daedalus 2.0 should be able to splice into their network with a combination of hacking methods from back home and some astromech technology I integrated into the computer months ago, back when I wanted easier access to architecture archives on Naboo. As for locating the houses, I've got that covered, or I guess you actually will."

I've always been amazed at how quickly Annabeth could come up with a plan. "I guess if you think we can pull off this super spy thing, Wise Girl, then we better get going before the race starts."

Annabeth muttered a quick, "We have to do something" to Shmi and Padmé. Jar-Jar was too busy covering his eyes to even notice our departure. However, Qui-Gon came just as we were leaving the seating lift.

"Do I even want to know where you two are heading off to?" the Jedi asked.

"Nope, probably not," I replied.

Qui-Gon just sighed and seemed to look weary, "Just try to come back in one piece."

"I always try my best when it comes to that!"

Annabeth and I sprinted to the nearest arena exit. We just got outside when I heard a beep and the roar of the crowd. As we ran back to the main street of the city, I asked Annabeth, "Now how exactly am I supposed to find these Hutt houses?" If I wasn't running, I'm sure I would have been laughing at the idea of a hut house, but even I knew how small our window was to pull this off without getting caught.

"All you need to do is find the place with the largest amount of water in the city," she replied barely winded.

It took me a moment to work out her genius. But, I realized on a desert planet like this, water would be a luxury. The Hutts were probably the wealthiest guys in the city, so they should have the most water. I stretched out my senses looking for water and felt practically two Olympic sized pools three blocks down right next to each other. I stopped Annabeth when we were a block away and pulled her down an alley. We both peered around the corner, and I pointed out two huge, tower-like structures that were literally across the road from each other. "I guess those are them. Each one has more water than the rest of the city combined."

Annabeth examined both buildings before reporting, "Okay, Jabba's is the larger one on the right. His is the one we need to infiltrate."

"How do you know that?"

She just shrugged, "Based on what we learned last night, Jabba is the new power in town so to speak. He built his town house after Gardulla, so he made sure to build it just a little bit bigger. Judging by his popularity at the race, Jabba is definitely the one to watch. He will probably have the whole planet under his control soon."

"Yeah sure, I totally knew that. What about the guards? It looks like there are two at each door front. Plus, I don't see a door knob or a control panel on that door."

"Hmm, we will have to act quickly. We probably have about 30 minutes for the race and award presentation before Jabba's people could start coming back. You need to figure out how to distract the guards. I'll do a quick invisible scan of the door with the laptop. When I come back, you will distract the guards, and I'll sneak in grab the data, place some of Leo's bugs, and come right back out."

I had one huge problem with that plan. "You are not going in alone."

"Now is not the time to be overprotective, Percy," Annabeth hissed. "I've got the invisibility cap."

"We don't even know if it will work on aliens, plus whatever other security Jabba has. I'm coming with you."

I guess she could tell I wasn't going to change my mind because she groaned, "Fine, but put your hoodie on from home and pull the hood all the way down. Hopefully, that will stop people from being able to see your face clearly. I'll do the same under the hat just in case because for once in your life, Seaweed Brain, you do make a good point. We need to make sure that Jabba knows nothing about us so that we have the element of surprise when we come back."

We both pulled our hoodies out from our demigod emergency packs that we brought with us just in case things went badly during the race. When Annabeth pulled out her cap, I muttered, "Why couldn't your mom have given you an invisibility cloak or something like that Harry Potter dude. Then we both could be invisible right now."

Annabeth just smiled, gave me a quick kiss on the cheek, and literally disappeared. I focused on the guards. All four seemed to be the same species as the big talkative alien that attacked me two nights ago. They were armed with some futuristic axe weapon. Both sets of sentries seemed bored and glared at their rivals across the street. Thinking back to my fight and my attacker's greedy eyes when he saw Riptide, I got an idea for our distraction.

Annabeth reappeared holding Daedalus 2.0 in tablet form. "The door seems to be managed by some gatekeeper droid, a TT-8L, that probably can see me even with my cap on when it's activated. Daedalus did a scan for weaknesses and our best option is to attach this to it." She pulled out a cable and plugged one end into the tablet. "Daedalus is constructing a virus that should be able to override the droid's protocol and open the door. We are relying on the fact that our computer viruses back home seem to use a different methodology, so hopefully it will slide right through the cyber defenses. What about the guards?"

"I think I have an idea," I replied with my trouble-maker smirk. Annabeth of course added her own ancient Greek twist to my distraction plan.

With 25 minutes to go, we started our plan. I watched from my hidden alley as Riptide suddenly appeared from thin air in the middle of the street. Its bronze blade thrusted halfway into the sandy road gleamed temptingly in the light of the two suns. A clear robotic voice said a phrase in Huttese that I knew must have been Daedalus 2.0's translation of 'For the strongest.'

The four guards jumped and then started speaking in Huttese. One of Gardulla's guards started walking towards Riptide. Jabba's guard made a weird growling noise and headed to Riptide as well. I guess he must have thought he was the strongest and not the other guard. Soon, all four of them were arguing heatedly. One started to reach for Riptide's hilt, and another punched him in the jaw. In less than two minutes an all-out brawl started between the guards.

I quickly snuck over to the front of Jabba's door. I knew Annabeth should be standing right next to the doorframe. I was about a yard away when a retractable orange glowing eye thing popped out of the door and spoke to me in Huttese. A few seconds later the droid-eye gave a shutter blinked twice with its metal lids and retracted as the door slid open. I glanced back and saw the guards still fighting and headed into the massive townhouse. I only wished I could see the looks on their faces when Riptide just vanished and returned to my pocket.

"Glad that worked," Annabeth said next to me in the modernized version of ancient Greek that demigods used. I mean we had to adapt and add a few words. It wasn't like the ancient Greeks had words for important 21st century demigod gear like duct tape or hamburgers. I seriously don't know how all those ancient heroes survived without hamburgers. We decided to use the strange language while we were in the house, just in case we were overheard.

"What now, Wise Girl?"

"We have less than 20 minutes to find the computer system for this house," she replied.

We walked up a steep incline and entered a huge round room with a large block on one side and a grate floor in the middle.

I saw a few black dots appear from nowhere and fly off. "Where those Leo's bugs?"

"Yep, this looked like an important room, so I figured I would drop a few."

Sometime while he was at Camp Half-Blood, Leo had designed bugs to overhear his opponents' strategies for capture the flag. Since it was Leo, his bugs were shaped and behaved like actual bugs. I guess he must have given some to Annabeth. We reached a staircase that spiral around the tower structure. "Up, or down?"

Annabeth thought for a second before responding, "Up."

We could hear wild cheering and cursing from an opening in the second floor, so we kept climbing. I guess the rest of Jabba's security were watching the race in there. On the third floor, we just found lots of empty rooms that looked like living quarters. Annabeth released another bug. On the fourth floor, I sensed lots of water. Sure enough, there was a huge tank filled with water and lots of smaller amphibian creatures. "This must be Jabba's food source," Annabeth whispered quietly. Gross, some of the creatures looked pretty slimy. But, then again so did the giant slug, himself.

On the fifth floor, we struck gold. Annabeth made quick work with the locked door and control panel. All I saw were things randomly disappearing and reappearing and wires moving as she grabbed and let go of certain parts. I stopped questioning how Annabeth knew to do things after she managed to land a helicopter with no previous experience. Sometimes I think Annabeth didn't even know herself, and the trade skill just popped up in her head. Inside was a wall of computer consoles, keypads, and monitors.

"We're lucky," Annabeth said. "I think Jabba must be staying at his suite in the arena. Otherwise, there would be a lot more security even with the race." She kept her Yankee's cap on just in case and got to work downloading data and doing computery stuff. "Okay, I've got as much as I could and left a spy virus in their network. It's really good Daedalus equipped this laptop with his customized computer espionage programming. On my own, it would have taken me months at least to develop the malware. Everything is packed up now. Let's get out of here."

We headed back down the stairs as quickly as we could. I heard lots of grumbling and coins clanking from the second floor. The race must be over. I wanted to poke my head in to see if Anakin won, but I felt a tug on my arm from Annabeth. We made it back to the big round room, and I had the very dangerous thought that we might actually pull off this whole spy mission without a problem. That's exactly when everything went wrong.

The two guards from the front door limped in from the entrance hall looking bloody and angry. They saw me immediately and snarled. One said something in Huttese, probably "Hey! You're not supposed to be in here." The other pressed a button on the wall that caused a gate to fall down, blocking the way out, and a loud alarm went off. I heard shouting from upstairs and figured we would have even more company soon.

Both guards approached me holding out their axe weapons and stepping on the grate in the floor. My hand was already in my pocket reaching for Riptide on instinct before I remembered it wouldn't be able to do much. I doubted that these guys were Force-sensitives. Before I could go for my hidden blaster, one and then the other crumbled over. I guess Annabeth must have knocked them out with her sword hilt or something. I ran to the flashing button by the gate and pressed it, but nothing happened. "Any ideas?"

"Only to hope this lever is a secret passage," Annabeth replied from across the room. The lever by the raised platform moved to the down position, and the metal grate in the middle of the floor opened. The two unconscious guards fell through. The footsteps from the stairs were getting closer. "Jump in. It seems like a short drop. I'll push the lever up and slide in before the grate closes." Well, there's no way this hole in the ground could be worse than the last one I fell through, so I jumped. I landed in a soft sand pit from about a ten-foot drop, so luckily, I didn't break anything. The grate above me started to close. I heard a soft thump as an invisible Annabeth landed next to me.

"Percy, we each need to grab one of the guards and drag them to the sides," Annabeth whispered. "Hopefully, they won't look down here too closely." I pressed myself against the back of a stone wall and foolishly hoped for some luck. Angry voices shouted above. More guards stepped over the grate. A few looked down, but they didn't look close enough to see us. Someone must have shut off the alarm, and soon the voices faded as well.

"That was a close one," Annabeth said. "Now let's figure out how to get out of here." I'm not sure what tipped me off. Maybe, it was the way the sand moved slightly around me as I walked or this Force thing, but my senses screamed danger. I heard Annabeth gasp next to me. Her demigod senses were probably tingling as well. I jumped towards her knocking her over and rolled us several yards away.

The sand exploded where we were standing only seconds before. A seven-foot tall, yellow-brown, spider-thing leapt to the surface. Annabeth made a yipping noise and froze. Her Yankee's cap must have fallen off during my tackle because I could see her now. As I struggled to my feet in the thick sand, the creature used its front legs to latch onto one of the unconscious guards. It lowered its sucker mouth until the guard's head was inside of it. There was a loud squelch and then a slurping noise like when you're trying to get the last bit of your soda with a straw.

I was as paralyzed as Annabeth for a few seconds as I slowly realized what the spider was doing. If you've never seen instant mummification as a body is drained of all fluids, well then lucky for you. You can continue to use it in your future _Never Have I Ever_ games when it's your turn to say something. I, however, will have to come up with a new one.

I could barely keep my breakfast down. My stomach twisted as the guard became a dry, shriveled up husk right before my eyes. Some dark part of me recognized that with my growing control over my powers I could potentially do exactly what the spider was doing. I'm not going to lie, that freaked me out. When the spider moved away, the now unrecognizable body looked worse than our old oracle. The creature swung its head towards us as if to make sure we hadn't moved. Then it started working on the other guard. That got me moving again. I drew Riptide, ready to charge, but Annabeth was as still as one of Medusa's statues.

Now, Annabeth was one of the bravest people I know, but unfortunately, spiders were sort of her kryptonite. Her thoughts had probably flashed back to another giant spider, and some very unpleasant memories. I knew I had to get her out of shock mode if we were going to survive. I shook her shoulders gently. "Come on Wise Girl, I need you to help me figure out how to kill this thing. It's just one more monster. We can take it together. You are not alone this time." Just for good measure I gave her a quick kiss. That seemed to jog her back.

She shook her head like she could shake out the bad memories. "It's fast so we should do a two-pronged attack. Watch out for its front legs. Try to go for its underside or the legs because that back armor looks pretty thick. Use your blaster as a last resort. We don't want to risk drawing any more attention from the guards." She rattled all this off in a detached manner as she pulled out her drakon-bone sword from her bag. "Unfortunately," she winced, "we are too late for the guards. It probably went after them first because they were unconscious."

I glanced back towards the second guard and couldn't help feeling a twinge of guilt. Given the opportunity, I knew the guards probably would have happily pushed Annabeth and I down here in a heart-beat for Count Spidula to suck dry. But, it just felt wrong for them to die without even a chance to defend themselves. My pity party for my conscious and the guards ended abruptly when the spider lashed out at us.

Annabeth dove to the side. I raised Riptide and blocked its two front legs, stopping them from wrapping around me. With the amount of force the spider used, it felt like blocking two broadswords at the same time. I was a little surprised that Riptide even stopped the blow at all since it just passed through normal humans, maybe animals were different?

Annabeth tried to sneak under the spider from the other side to reach its soft belly, but the spider quickly turned and lashed out another leg that Annabeth dodged. While it was distracted, I swung Riptide as hard as I could at the nearest leg joint. It cut through the exoskeleton causing the spider to squeal in pain. Unfortunately, I misjudged the force needed to cut the leg, and the extra momentum of the swing left me unbalanced and my back vulnerable. Before I could fully complete the turn, one of the spider's razor-sharp front legs cut into my back. The spider lunged at me with its sucker mouth, but this was the opportunity Annabeth needed to slash its underside. It let out another awful screech and then collapsed in on itself making a spider ball and rolling towards Annabeth. She jumped out of the way, and the vampire spider buried itself deep in the sand pit.

"Are you okay? How bad are you hurt?" Annabeth asked as she rushed towards me.

"Eh, I've had worse," I replied with a shrug that stretched the gash on my back and made me wince slightly.

She frowned, "That's not a very reassuring statement coming from you, Seaweed Brain. Let me take a look." I turned around, so she could see the cut. "It doesn't look too bad. Hopefully some ambrosia will stop most of the bleeding, but try not to do anything to open it back up."

She rummaged through her pack and handed me an ambrosia square. I slowly ate the godly food and groaned as a wave of homesickness crashed into me. The ambrosia tasted like my mom's chocolate chip cookies. I knew we needed to save our ambrosia and nectar, and if I had another piece, I might literally explode. But, that still didn't stop me from wanting more just for another taste of home.

Annabeth looked at me with concern, "Better?" I just nodded, too wrapped up in memories to speak. The cut on my back did hurt less. It had probably scabbed over though not completely healed. She gave my hand a gentle squeeze. That simple gesture was a reminder that I wasn't alone and at the same time a promise that we would get back someday. "I know it might hurt, but I need you to take off your clothes," Annabeth stated.

"I'm sure most boyfriends would love to hear their girlfriends say that, but I really don't think now is a good time," I said. "You know with the whole Count Spidula beneath us and being stuck in a mobster's monster pit."

Annabeth blushed, "I didn't mean it like that. But, I would like you to change clothes with one of the guards. That way, when they check down here, Jabba's men will find a completely unrecognizable corpse in the same clothes as the person who broke in. No doubt they will check the security cameras now that they suspect a break in and see you. They will probably think that the thief put up a good fight and injured the spider, but in the end the spider managed to kill him. With a body as our scapegoat, Jabba has no reason to go looking for you. At the very least it will confuse them for awhile."

I had to admit, it was a pretty good plan. "Are there any cameras down here? And what about the other guard?"

"I haven't seen any cameras down here though I noticed several in the main room and upper areas, but I'll double check as you change. As for the guard, we will just have to take him with us and bury him somewhere," Annabeth said grimly.

I turned to one of the dead guards. "Sorry dude, but this is going to really suck for both of us."

After I changed into the guard's very stinky armor, we dragged the other guard to a large metal barred window that separated us from outside. In that moment, I realized just how cruel Jabba truly was. I could imagine the giant slug sitting up there watching his victims try to get through this window before the spider pounced on them, giving them just a little bit of hope, so they would fight harder before they died. Riptide made quick work of the steal-like bars, and Annabeth and I slipped through to freedom in an alley behind the main entrance, pulling the mummified guard with us.

Annabeth whipped out some kind of pen-thing and quickly welded the bars back. "Umm, where did you get a mini-welding torch?" I asked her.

She just shrugged, "Anakin had an extra one, figured it might come in handy." To avoid everyone seeing us walk down the street carrying a mummy, we decided that Annabeth would hide the guard since she and any object she was holding could turn invisible. It was morbid, but the body was an object now and no longer a person. I still didn't like the idea of splitting up, but it's not like I could follow her when I couldn't see her. Meanwhile, I would try to find the others, and we would meet back at the Skywalker's apartment.

As I headed back towards the arena, I caught snatches of conversation from spectators of the race.

"I still can't believe it!"

". . .a human boy setting the track record."

"That slave trounced Sebulba in the final lap!"

I couldn't help it. I fist pumped the air and let out a whoop. He did it! Though I wish I could have seen him trounce Sebulba. I found our group minus Qui-Gon in the hypogeum all gathered around Anakin. "Congratulations man!" I said, "You are all anyone's talking about on the streets. That must have been some impressive racing! Sorry Annabeth and I had to miss it." I held out my hand for a high-five, but Anakin just looked confused. "Oh, where I'm from people slap hands when someone's done something really cool."

Anakin got a big grin on his face and slapped my hand, "Like this?"

"Yep!"

Then the boy frowned, "Percy, why are wearing the armor of a Hutt guard and where did you and Annabeth go during the race?" He looked around, "Where is Annabeth?"

"She's finishing up something." I tried not to think about the mummified corpse my girlfriend had to bury by herself. Life was so much easier when your opponents just turned into dust when you defeated them. "As for where we went, well that's a bit of a long story that I'll tell you when we get back to your place." The last thing I needed was someone over-hearing that I super spied myself into one of Jabba's residencies.

When Qui-Gon came back, he informed us that Watto would hold his end of the bargain, so we would get the parts. "I am glad to see you made it back, Percy," the old Jedi said with a small smile. "Annabeth?"

"She's going to meet us back at the Skywalker's place."

"Very well then, let us get back to the Skywalker's residence, so we can pack up our things and get these parts over to the ship," Qui-Gon instructed.

By the time we reached Anakin and Shmi's apartment, Annabeth was waiting for us. She congratulated Anakin, and once we were safely in the apartment Annabeth and I explained where we went.

"You infiltrated Jabba's townhouse on Mos Espa Way!" Anakin exclaimed. "That's so cool!"

Annabeth gave him a small smile. "I doubt we stole any really important information though since it was pretty easy, but even the tiniest detail could be useful."

Qui-Gon, of course, was less than pleased. He lectured us about being reckless, risking our safety, and endangering the mission. Padmé, Jar-Jar, and Blue the droid went with Qui-Gon to get the parts and deliver them to the ship while Annabeth and I were put on house arrest until the ship was ready. "I'm not taking any chances," Qui-Gon said. "If Jabba's forces spot you, I want to be ready to make a quick getaway." He rushed out before I could point out that Jabba didn't even know it was us that had broken into his place. I mean he most likely thought it was the dead guy with my hoody.

Anakin ran off to meet with some friends, so I changed out of the smelly dead guard's clothes and helped Annabeth clean up the mess of five extra people living in the Skywalker's home. Shmi worked on some electronic stuff for Watto in an alcove. After working in relative silence, Annabeth used her smooth speaking skills to bring up a delicate subject. "Shmi, Percy and I have a good bit of money from our home world that we think could be very valuable on Tatooine. We've been saving it because I thought that we could use it to get back to our original home somehow. But now, it looks like we aren't going home soon no matter how much money we have." She glanced at me, and I nodded in encouragement. "If things went badly today, we would have used it to get our group off the planet, but since Anakin won, I would like to use it instead to help you and Anakin out."

"Thank you for the offer, but I cannot accept your money," Shmi replied softly.

"Look, I know I promised to free the slaves here, but as Annabeth said that could take years." I tried to make her understand that we were offering more than just some charity donation. "I would feel a lot better if you guys were freed as soon as possible, especially now that Anakin has drawn so much attention to himself by winning the race. I've only been here for three days, but even I can tell that attention is the last thing you want on a planet like this between the Hutts and street thugs."

Shmi frowned as she considered my words. "You would use your own money to free us?"

I winced as Annabeth replied, "Unfortunately, with out funds alone, I think we can only free one of you, though maybe if Watto is really desperate and with the extra money if you sold the pod. . ." She trailed off as she considered the possibility.

"Then you must free Anakin," Shmi said firmly. "He deserves so much more than the life of a slave. If you take him with you, he would be out of Hutt territory. He could have a future."

"Are you sure?" I asked. I had personally experienced the pain of a son forced to leave his mother behind. I wished I could prevent Anakin from sharing that particular experience.

"Yes, if you can only free one of us, then it must be him."

* * *

A few hours after everyone had left, Anakin excitedly rushed into the apartment. "Mom! Look at all the money we got from selling the pod!"

"Oh my goodness Ani, that's great!" Shmi exclaimed and gave him a long hug, like she was already counting down the number of times she would be able to hug her son.

"And he has been freed," Qui-Gon added.

"What?" Anakin and I asked at the same time. The boy looked so shocked and hopeful while I was just confused. Annabeth and I hadn't freed him yet, and as far as I knew, Qui-Gon didn't know that we were. How was he freed?

"You are no longer a slave," Qui-Gon told the boy.

Annabeth's eyes lit up with understanding. "So that was the extra gamble you made this morning before the race!"

Qui-Gon nodded. Anakin turned to his mom, "Can you believe that?"

"Now you are free, Ani," Shmi replied with a smile. "You can make your dreams come true." She focused on Qui-Gon, "Will you take him with you? Is he to become a Jedi?"

"Yes," the Jedi replied. "Our meeting was no accident. I believe the Force has led me to Anakin. It is his destiny to become a Jedi."

"Wait, does Anakin even want to be a Jedi?" I had a sinking feeling in my gut as the beginning of a suspicion formed. Qui-Gon might have only freed Anakin because he believed Ani was this 'Chosen One' of the prophecy with his super high amount of midi-chlorines or whatever those microbes were called. This reminded me too much of when Poseidon initially claimed me only because he needed me to clear his name. Sure, my dad and I had developed a better relationship after that. But, sometimes I still wondered where I would be if my dad hadn't needed me six years ago. Would he have just continued to ignore me?

"Yes!" Anakin said immediately, "It's what I dreamed of doing."

I frowned at that. So far, I couldn't say I was too impressed with this Jedi Order. They seemed far too strict, traditional, and closed-minded just based on what I've learned from Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan though those laser swords were really cool.

"Anakin, becoming a Jedi will be challenging, and even after the training, it's a hard life," Qui-Gon warned. At least the man was honest about it and not just trying to convince the kid to join up with the space police cult just to be their 'Chosen One.'

"I know I will have to work hard, but it's what I always wanted," Anakin stated a little wistfully.

"And no matter what happens Ani," I added, "you and your mom are always welcome to stay with Annabeth and I on Naboo. I just want to make sure you know you have a choice. Something I never really had." No one had asked me, 'hey Percy, you want to be a demigod and risk your life like all the time?'

"Mom, are you free too?" Anakin asked.

Qui-Gon frowned, "Unfortunately, I was unable to free your mother as well. I offered Watto the money from selling the pod, but he would have none of it and asked for twice as much."

Anakin looked devastated. "Mom, I can't just leave you here."

"Do you still want to go?" Shmi asked her son.

"Yes, but–"

"Then go pack your things. I'm sure I will be fine, and everything will work out." Mother and son shared another hug before Anakin ran off to his room.

Shmi looked at Annabeth and I with a desperate question in her eyes. I locked eyes with Annabeth. She nodded and said, "Bring the money from the pod, I have a feeling we might need it."

"Where are you planning on going now?" Qui-Gon asked sternly, "We need to leave immediately."

Annabeth looked quickly in the direction Anakin had gone, "We just really need to show Shmi something she should buy with this money." I guess Annabeth didn't want to get Anakin's hopes up just yet.

"I told you, Watto will not free her," Qui-Gon whispered back.

"He won't let you free her," Annabeth explained. "He feels like he has lost twice to you and probably blames you for knowing Anakin would win somehow. His pride won't let you take anything else from him. But, we luckily aren't you and might be able to provide some additional motivation."

Qui-Gon sighed, "Very well. The ship should be ready by now. That way if you do run into trouble with the Hutts, we should be able to make a quick getaway. Just promise me you will go straight to the shop and straight back. Do not do anything that will draw attention to yourselves, and if Watto refuses, you will not engage him." He said that last part looking directly at me.

"Hey, I don't cause all the trouble around here. The Mission Impossible stuff was all her idea. But yes, I promise to not do anything too stupid."

As we got close to the Muppet's shop, Annabeth turned to me, but before she could tell me anything I said, "Leave the talking to you, Wise Girl, got it."

"Maybe there's hope for that seaweed brain after all," she replied and with that Shmi, Annabeth, and I entered the shop to barter for freedom.

* * *

Part of me hated the idea of giving a slave owner like Watto any money. But Annabeth had convinced me the day before that it was the best and quickest way to free Shmi and Ani. "What do you want now," Watto barked out. "Oh, you are not that annoying, cheating, outlander." He studied us more closely before adding, "But, you are his friends. I want nothing to do with you."

"Look, I know Qui-Gon can seem pretty smug, with that all knowing look of his," Annabeth sympathized, "But as you shrewdly noticed we are not Qui-Gon, so maybe you should at least here us out. It could be quite profitable for you." Annabeth pulled out the money from the pod, and Watto perked up.

"Hmm, you say you have money?" The blue Muppet asked.

"Yes, for Shmi." Annabeth gave the woman an apologetic look at having to barter for her. Shmi just nodded in understanding.

The Muppet frowned, "The foolish outlander thinks he can fool me. He knew I would not deal with him, so he sent you. I'll tell you the same thing, 700 peggats, and don't you dare bring up Republic credits."

Annabeth frowned, "That is a ridiculous amount of money. Here is 350 peggats." She put the money on the counter. "But, we are willing to offer more if you can convince us, though this should be more than enough to pay off your debts. Would you really let some grudge against Qui-Gon stop you from making money? I thought Toydarians were thriftier and cleverer than that."

"More you say?" I could see the greedy Muppet rubbing his hands together in my mind. "But, I need Shmi. She is a good worker and runs the shop well. After that race, I've lost everything. The shop is all I have left."

Annabeth reached into her bag. She pulled out three drachmas and placed them on the counter. I swear she purposely maneuvered the coins to maximize their sparkle in the dim light of the shop. "This is the purest gold you will find. By my estimate one of these coins is the equivalent to 37 peggats. Over 460 peggats should be more than enough to handle your debts from the race and fix up this shop some."

The Muppet's eyes widened at the drachmas. He picked one up and bit it. Guess even in another universe, people still bite gold. He examined the bite mark he made in the soft metal. "Ahh, this is good stuff. Where did you get it? I hope you didn't kill anyone I know for this?"

"Where we got it is not relevant to this exchange, but just so you don't get suspicious, it is from my home planet far from here." Annabeth replied. "Now do we have a deal?"

Watto's eyes narrowed as he examined the pile of money. Then he shook his head, "No, finding good help to replace Shmi will cost too much and since I've lost the boy I need people that know how to work with the parts and machines."

Annabeth just sighed and pulled out two more drachmas. She looked him straight in the eyes and said, "This is it. By my math, that puts us at 535 peggats. You could probably buy your own ship and get off this planet for that much. It is definitely enough to hire good help, and by the way droids are probably way cheaper than slaves."

The Muppet hesitated and looked at Shmi. "Well, if it's still not enough, I guess that's too bad," Annabeth stated as she started reaching for the pile of money to dump back in her bag. "We are leaving today, and I wouldn't recommend trying to get any of your friends to rob us. Sebulba's friends tried to teach us a lesson a few nights ago. It didn't turn out too well for them."

"Wait!" Watto cried out frantically before Annabeth could touch the money. "I'll take it. It's a deal. Shmi, you are free to go." He waved his hand out the door.

Annabeth held out her hand, "And the controller for the slave transmitter?"

Watto huffed and unbuckled a slim rod-thing from one of his belts and handed it to Annabeth.

* * *

"Great bartering, Wise Girl!" I congratulated Annabeth as soon as we were far enough away from the shop. "We even have six drachmas left, just in case, and that bluff at the end was incredible."

She smiled, "It's all about strategy and reading people, knowing their weakness."

Shmi looked like she was in a daze. Finally, she looked at us and asked, "I am really free?"

"Yes," Annabeth replied. "I'm so sorry we had to do that in front of you, but I thought having you there might help some. All things considered, Watto doesn't seem like too bad of a guy and maybe even feels a little guilty at owning slaves since he didn't actually buy you but won a bet against Gardulla. She's the one that decided to pay him in slaves. I think the fact that he never purchased anymore could support that theory." She wrinkled her brow, "Or he could just be really lazy or too broke to afford more."

Shmi just nodded, "It's just so hard to believe after almost twenty-five years."

"Oh, by the way, this is officially yours." Annabeth handed Shmi the rod controller thing. The older woman took it reverently and placed it in her pocket. "If you decide to come with us, I'm sure we can get it removed once we get on one of the Core or Mid Rim planets. Though I'm hoping you will let me examine the transmitter and controller one day. If I could figure out a way to block the signal between the two or maybe deactivate the transmitter, it would really help with freeing other slaves."

"Of course," Shmi replied. Then she stopped suddenly and hugged Annabeth and then me. "Thank you so much, the both of you. I had given up hope that this day would ever come."

To say Anakin was happy that his mother was free as well, would be an understatement. There were lots of hugs all around and tears of happiness from Shmi. Qui-Gon was impressed, "I have to admit that I did not think Watto would agree to free Shmi at any price we could afford."

"Wise Girl, here, is a pretty good negotiator," I informed him.

"You're coming with us in the spaceship, right mom?" Anakin asked.

We all looked to Qui-Gon, and he nodded. "Of course, she is welcomed to come with us."

"Yippee!"

"But," Qui-Gon added, "if you truly wish to be a Jedi, perhaps your mother should settle on Naboo with Percy and Annabeth or another planet if she wishes. It would probably be best if she did not remain on Coruscant where the Jedi Temple is."

"But, why?" Anakin asked.

Qui-Gon seemed to almost space out for a minute. When his eyes focused again, he looked worried. "That, my young friend, is an explanation I will have to give later."

I groaned quietly and muttered, "I hate it when he says that."

Qui-Gon must have heard my comment because he looked at me and the corners of his mouth curled up in a small smile despite his worry. The smile quickly vanished though when he said, "We must leave immediately. I fear we may have stayed too long."

Shmi quickly threw somethings in a bag, deciding to come with us even if she would have to live on a separate planet from her son. Starting over on some unknown planet would be better than here. Anyplace was better than here, except maybe for Tartarus. We rushed out of the door and started the long trek back to the ship. Neither Anakin nor Shmi looked back once.

 **Author's Note: Yes, I forced Percy and Annabeth into a convenient side adventure just so I didn't have to write about a race that we all know what happens in. Next chapter should be up in the next few days.**


	14. I Duel an Evil Dude

**As always, thanks for all the reviews, favorites, and follows.**

Chapter 14: I Duel an Evil Dude

As we left Mos Espa, Qui-Gon set a pressing pace across the dessert to reach the ship. I caught up to him and asked, "You sensed some danger coming after us with your Force sense, didn't you? That's why you are rushing."

"Yes, I believe the Sith hunter you saw in your dream is very close."

I looked back at Anakin who had fallen behind several yards. "I'll help Ani then."

I headed back to where Anakin was. His short legs were struggling to keep up with the rest of us in the thick sand. Even Shmi was having a little trouble matching Qui-Gon's pace. Thank goodness Annabeth and I had kept up with our conditioning on Naboo. "Hey, Ani climb on, and I'll give you a ride. In case you haven't noticed, Qui-Gon's in a bit of a hurry." I moved my backpack to the front and dropped low enough for the boy to climb on my back and wrap his arms around my neck. The still healing cut on my back protested, but I just told my body to shut up. I looped my arms around Anakin's legs and started running to catch up with the rest of the group.

We were over halfway to the ship when Qui-Gon stopped suddenly. "We are not going to make it. Percy, Annabeth, get them to the ship. Tell them to take off."

"What about you?" I asked.

"I'll hold him off as long as I can. Go!"

We kept running over a dune. When we reached the other side of the giant sand pile, I heard a sound like an airplane taking off and then those laser sword sounds. I thought about how much distance we had to cover. It would take at least 10 minutes if we kept the same pace. That was a long time to hold someone off. I remembered those glowing evil eyes from my dream, and I made a decision. I put Anakin down.

"Percy, no, you heard Qui-Gon," Annabeth said looking worried.

"I have to help. I know you did the math, and how long he will have to fight," I responded stubbornly.

"He's good, Percy."

"I think so is this guy."

Annabeth bit her lip. "Then I'll stay. You can carry Anakin and go faster."

"You know I have the better weapon, Wise Girl. If anything can withstand those laser swords, it's Riptide."

"This is so stupid, Seaweed Brain. The laser sword might just cut right through Riptide."

"Riptide will hold, as long as you stop arguing and get the ship back to us quickly," I said confidently. "A kiss for luck?"

"Only if you stay alive," was her reply. She grabbed both Anakin's and Shmi's packs to help them go faster and took off sprinting.

I tightened the straps on my own pack, pulled out Riptide but left it capped, and sprinted up the dune. When I reached the top, I took stock of the fight below and was immediately glad that I had staid. Qui-Gon was on the defensive his green laser sword blocked his opponent's red one, but he was getting pushed back towards the dune I was standing on. I couldn't see much of Qui-Gon's opponent except that he was wearing a black cloak with the hood all the way up, but I assumed he was Mr. Evil Eyes in the flesh. What was his name, Darth Maw or something? His fighting style reminded me a lot of Luke's, aggressive and ruthless, like he was mad at the whole universe and didn't care who he killed. I'm not sure what was more impressive, all of his spin moves and flips, or the fact that he managed to keep his hood up while doing those fancy moves.

As I twirled Riptide between my fingers, I got an idea. It was pretty gutsy even for me. If it didn't work, I would be a fried Percy-kobob on a red laser sword. If it did work, I would probably kill another person. My stomach tightened at the thought, but that guy was definitely trying to kill Qui-Gon and would probably try and take the queen next. I would be defending a friend. Plus, as a member of the Naboo Security Force, it was my duty to protect my new home which meant this evil guy had to be stopped any way I could.

I ran or more accurately slid down the dune and stood to the side, out of the way of the fight, as I waited for the right moment. I hoped I wouldn't distract Qui-Gon who seemed like he needed all his focus just to block the red blade. But, since when have I ever gotten what I hoped for. With measured breaths, Qui-Gon managed to get out, "Percy, what are you doing? I told you to get back to the–"

He was interrupted when the Sith guy kicked him in the stomach. Qui-Gon flew back. I stepped forward and managed to get the Sith's attention. He looked exactly as he had in my dream except now I could see him in glorious HD-full color mode. The strange markings on his face were red and black, and his eyes did glow with a sickly yellow color surrounded by a red rim. I could make out what looked like a few horns on his head under his hood. Could this guy look any more like a stereotypical bad guy? I tried to look as non-threatening as possible channeling my normal teenager just chilling at the mall vibe, with a slight slouch and both hands in my pockets though one of them gripped Riptide and was ready to flip off the cap any second.

The guy just sneered with his black teeth and swung his blade with two hands aiming right for my neck. The movement was so quick that I doubt I would have been able to follow it if I was a normal mortal. But, lucky for me, I was a super hyperactive demigod pumped up on adrenaline that had been waiting for him to do exactly that. In one move, I dove forward on my knees, pulled out Riptide, and uncapped the pen. As his blade passed harmlessly over me, Riptide expanded into its full size and pierced him. It should have been a killing blow. But, the Sith shifted at the last second, and I stabbed his side instead. He hissed in pain and threw out his hand almost like a reflex. A force, or I guess the Force, slammed into me. I was thrown backwards several yards. It was a flashback to fighting Titans, and I didn't like it any better when it was a Sith that made me fly backwards. Luckily, I kept my grip on my sword.

Before Qui-Gon, who seemed too stunned to move at the moment, or I could attack the Sith again, he quickly took off his cloak and pressed his red laser sword to the bleeding wound in his side. He glared at me with such hatred and loathing as the putrid smell of burning flesh filled the hot air. He must be using the heat of his own sword to cauterize the wound and stop the bleeding. And, he barely flinched!

Qui-Gon recovered from his shock first and attacked. I have to hand it to Yellow Eyes, even though he was hurt and just burned his own skin together, he didn't move like it. I got back to right outside of the two clashing laser swords with Riptide ready, waiting to see if Qui-Gon would need any more help. In one of his fancy twirls, the Sith managed to kick Qui-Gon again. I jumped in and met his next swing with Riptide. There was a hiss when the two blades met, but Riptide held. I took advantage of the Sith's surprise (no doubt he was expecting to slice right through my metal blade) and managed to push him back. By then Qui-Gon had fully recovered and rushed Yellow Eyes. This time I followed right behind him for a full on two vs one.

Instead of retreating, the other side of the Sith's laser sword hilt ignited, and a second blade appeared. You've got to be kidding me, a double-bladed laser sword! Why did the bad guys always have the coolest weapons? After that, the real fight started. It was a series of slashes and whirls and ducks and dodges. I didn't have time to think or plan or focus on the increasing pain from the cut on my back, so I just trusted my instincts. This guy seemed a big fan of unexpected kicks, but I was able to surprise him with a few of my own crazy Greacus moves here and there. While both the Sith and Qui-Gon did fancy flips, I stuck to my signature roll under opponent's feet move. The first time I did it, Evil Dude was so surprised, I was able to get a shallow slice on his leg.

I don't know how long we had been fighting, but Riptide wasn't doing so great. Now, every time Riptide met his laser sword steam would come out of my blade. What made it even worse was that the Sith noticed it too and seemed to be trying to burn through Riptide with every strike, putting even more force into his blows and trying to lengthen the amount of time the blades were in contact.

I really didn't want to lose my trusty blade. Suddenly, I felt a familiar tug in my gut like I was using my powers, but how could I, when there was no water to manipulate, and I wasn't even trying to make any? I was just thinking about wanting to save Riptide. Then it hit me. Riptide, like me, possessed the power of the ocean. It was originally created by Pleione a daughter of Oceanus, and then Zoë Nightshade added her immortal power to it when she gave it to the douche, Hercules. The fight with the laser sword must be burning up its ocean power which was probably the real reason the red laser sword couldn't just cut right through it. The sword must have started drawing on my own power to stop the laser sword.

It had been nearly a year since I've fought while actively using my powers, and I was definitely out of practice. I felt like I was summoning a hurricane without the benefit of my opponent getting slowed down by the storm. I still managed to block the Sith's laser sword, and Riptide, thankfully, had stopped steaming. But, my movements were getting more sluggish by the second making me the recipient of even more hard kicks from the Sith.

I heard a rumble. Before I could locate the noise, one of Qui-Gon's hands flew out. He did that Force push thing and shoved me several yards away from the fight. As I pushed myself up from the sand for what felt like the millionth time, I saw our silver ship flying low towards us with the entrance ramp down. I looked back to where Qui-Gon was battling the Sith and realized he pushed me away so that I could get on the ship. The only problem was that the ship didn't seem to be landing. The edge of the ramp was hovering over 15 feet from the ground. "Go," Qui-Gon shouted.

Easy for him to say. With all the acrobatics I'd seen him and the Sith do, I figured the Jedi could make this jump in his sleep. I quickly capped Riptide and focused on my timing. When the ship got close enough that I could see Annabeth waiting for me at the top of the ramp, I sprinted a few steps and jumped for all I was worth.

I didn't completely make it. But, my hands managed to grab the edge of the ramp before I could slide off completely. I groaned as the now completely re-opened cut on my back stretched while I hung there.

"Percy!" Annabeth shouted. Her hand wrapped around my right arm trying to pull me up, but she was struggling with my weight and the wind. Suddenly, another hand grabbed my other arm. I was hauled up until I was completely on the ramp. I looked up to see Obi-Wan and Annabeth looking down with worried expressions. "Thanks," I managed to gasp out.

"Qui-Gon needs help. Now that the Sith is aware of our escape, he is doing everything to block Qui-Gon from getting on the ramp." Obi-Wan stated.

The ship was circling around Qui-Gon to give him another shot at jumping on. Obi-Wan looked like he was about to jump down there and help fight the Sith, but before he could leap off, Annabeth said, "Here I got it." She carefully laid flat on the ramp and pulled herself to the edge.

"Annabeth, what are you doing?" I asked.

"Hold my legs, just in case, Percy."

I learned long ago in situations like these you just listened to Annabeth and let her execute her plan. I kneeled down on the ramp and braced her legs as she pulled out her blaster and aimed it at the fighting figures below.

"No!" Obi-Wan shouted over the wind. "It's too risky you might hit Qui-Gon."

"I won't," Annabeth said confidently. The Sith's back was to us since he was keeping Qui-Gon away from the ship, so Annabeth fired her blaster right at it. The Sith dodged the first one, probably hoping it would hit Qui-Gon, but the Jedi used the Sith's change in direction to spin around and create more distance between them.

With a clear shot, Annabeth fired twice more. The Sith easily deflected them, but that was all the time Qui-Gon needed to leap onto the ramp, landing gently on his feet. "Show-off," I muttered. The old Jedi managed a small smile at my comment while he tried to catch his breath.

As soon as we were all safely on the ship with the entrance ramp closed tight, I sank to the floor. All the adrenaline left me, and my body was letting me know exactly how many times the evil dude had managed to kick me. Annabeth sat down next to me and gave me a _you-didn't-die_ kiss, which in my opinion is one of the best kinds of kisses you can get. The door leading to the cockpit opened, and Anakin rushed out.

"Are you alright?" Anakin asked running to us.

"I think so," Qui-Gon replied. "Percy?" He had to loudly clear his throat and say my name again before Annabeth and I pulled away.

"Umm, yeah I'm alright," I said still a little dazed from the kiss and the fight.

"Though, someone seems out of shape if he was that out of breath just after fighting for 13 minutes. You almost missed the jump, Seaweed Brain," Annabeth said critically.

"Hey, towards the end there I had to start funneling my power into Riptide to stop it from melting, and that guy fought like a cornered demon" I huffed.

"Umm, Percy," Anakin said uncertainly, "your back seems to be bleeding a lot."

Annabeth, immediately got up, pulled me to my feet, and turned me around. I gingerly reached around and pressed where my back hurt. The fabric of my shirt was damp there, and I have a feeling it wasn't just from sweat.

"That's strange, I do not recall you getting injured on your back at all during the fight, and a lightsaber would not leave an open cut like that." Qui-Gon mused.

"No, it's from the big vampire spider at Jabba's place, that practically had swords for legs and tried to suck all of the fluids out of you." I informed the Jedi.

"No way! You fought Jabba's Sandswimmer and still made it out alive?" Anakin asked excitedly.

"I guess, if that's what the spider-thing is called."

"I told you not to split it open again," Annabeth scolded.

"Well, sorry Annabeth, I didn't think I would be dangling from a spaceship or fighting evil dudes."

"And whose fault is that? If you would have just listened to Qui-Gon–"

"I would probably be dead," Qui-Gon interrupted before Annabeth could get into full rant mode. "Though challenging a Sith, especially when you were already injured, is never a good idea. And, in the future, I would rather you not completely disregard my orders during a conflict again. But, just this once, perhaps it was a good thing you did not listen and stayed to help me. At that time and in those conditions, I do not think I could have lasted long enough on my own for the ship to reach me."

"Master, you think that being was truly a Sith?" Obi-Wan questioned.

"Yes, there is no doubt in my mind that the Sith have returned from hiding, and at least two of them are after the queen." Qui-Gon replied. "Because if young Percy's dream was right about this Sith apprentice hunting us, then I'm sure the rest of his dream is also true."

"But surly the Jedi Council would have sensed something."

"I am not sure," Qui-Gon admitted. "The power of the dark side can hide much and cloud even the Council's vision."

"What are we going to do about the bad guys after the queen?" Anakin asked.

"We shall be patient and continue to Coruscant, but first we need to get Percy to the medbay."

* * *

It turns out, no matter what universe you were in, infirmaries…medbays, whatever you wanted to call them sucked. A droid greeted me as soon as Qui-Gon and Annabeth shoved me into the cramped medbay room. It must have had x-rays for eyes or something because as soon as its yellow, flashlight, eyes looked in my direction it said in a robotic voice, "The patient is suffering from two bruised ribs and a large laceration on the back, plus several other minor bruises on torso. The recommended treatment with the current supplies provided is bacta patches on injuries and rest. The estimated time until patient release is three days."

"Nope, there is no way I'm staying here for three days just for a scratch and a few bruises." I tried to walk out of the door but Qui-Gon and Annabeth stopped me.

"You need to give your body time to heal," Qui-Gon insisted.

"It doesn't need three days," I countered. "There must be something better than these bacta patches with all of your fancy technology."

"Unfortunately, this ship is not equipped with a bacta tank, so this is the best we have."

I thought about whipping out an ambrosia square from my pack. I probably could consume one more square today without spontaneously combusting. That should heal my ribs pretty well. And, maybe, Annabeth would poor some nectar on the cut, and it would scab over again. But, I really didn't want to waste anymore of the godly food since this wasn't an emergency. "What about a bath tub or just a place I can soak in water?" I knew there was water running through the ship even though the only refreshers I used on it had the futuristic sonic showers that didn't use water.

"Even the Queen's living quarters do not have the luxury of a bath due to the limited space on this craft," Qui-Gon stated. "But, the Queen's refresher as well as the one in this medbay are equipped with water showers. However, we do have far more advanced methods for disinfecting an open wound than water."

"For me, nothing beats water." I skirted around the droid that was trying to push me on a cot and stepped into the refresher. It felt so good to be around water again after almost three days on that cursed desert planet. As soon as I stepped into the shower, my body stopped aching quite as much. Now, it wasn't nearly as nice as swimming in the ocean or even wading through the creek at Camp Half-Blood, but I felt the cut on my back slowly start to close again. The water automatically shut off after 15 minutes even though I probably could have spent all night under the warm water. I figured water usage must be regulated on the ship or something.

When I finally left the refresher feeling much more, well refreshed, than when I had entered, I found that I was alone in the medbay with just the droid. "Huh, where did Annabeth go?"

"Miss Chase and Master Jinn had to report to Her Highness, but in their absence, I have been ordered to treat your injuries and keep you in the medbay," the droid replied

"Good luck with that, Mr. Droid Doc." I made for the closed medbay doors and pressed the release button but nothing happened.

"Excuse me sir, but I have been programed to control patient release and have temporarily locked the door from inside release until you have been treated. Now please remove the article of clothing covering your torso, so I can begin treatment."

I sighed, man this droid was as persistent as the Apollo healers back at camp with none of their sunny personalities. Not really seeing a way out other than trying to bust down the door, I decided to humor the droid. Besides, being stuck in here no doubt got me out of the long and painful debriefing of all the events that happened on Tatooine.

The droid might have short circuited when it realized how far my injuries had healed in such a short time. Saying stuff like, "This result does not compute with the predictive calculations." I didn't bother trying to explain. It still went ahead and put those bacta patches on the worst injuries but said I should be able to be released tomorrow. As I waited for Annabeth and the others to come back, I couldn't help drifting off to sleep. It had been a long day.

I woke up to the hiss of the medbay door opening. Annabeth came in followed by Panaka and Qui-Gon. I saw Obi-Wan waiting in the hall since the small room was getting crowded with three people plus the Mr. Droid Doc.

"Percy, it is good to see you back and in one piece, especially after a fight with a Force-user wielding a lightsaber. How are your injuries?" Panaka asked concerned.

"They're fine," I replied. "It's really not that big of a deal. I've had worse, and besides they're mostly healed now."

"Two One Bee, is this true?" Panaka questioned the droid.

"Yes Captain, though the speed of the patient's recovery is significantly faster than my calculations predicted. Maybe, there is a glitch in my programing. The patient should be released tomorrow."

Panaka turned to Qui-Gon, "I thought you said he had bruised ribs and a nasty cut on his back? I believe injuries that serious usually require a longer recovery time."

Qui-Gon looked at me curiously as he replied, "Yes, Percy did sustain those injuries. Though I suppose he found a faster method of healing than bacta patches while we were debriefing the queen."

"A faster method than bacta patches? That's impossible without a tank," Panaka reasoned.

"Although I have only spent a few days with Percy and Annabeth, I have noticed that your charges are rather unique and seem to make us question exactly what is in the realm of possibility," Qui-Gon responded.

Panaka looked at Annabeth and I critically before focusing back on Qui-Gon. "So, they are Force-sensitives then?"

"Yes," Qui-Gon replied.

"But they are not Jedi?"

"Definitely not. Though after comparing notes, it seems they may have filled a similar role in their home world, but that the Force works a little differently there." Qui-Gon looked at Annabeth and I and gave us an encouraging nod. "I am sure you three have much to discuss, so I will give you some privacy." With that the Jedi walked out of the medbay, closing the door behind him and leaving a very large elephant in the room. I had to give it the wily old man. He must have really wanted us to tell Panaka the truth because he had effectively backed us into a figurative corner and all but forced us to come clean to Panaka.

Panaka sighed and looked at Annabeth and me before saying, "I am only going to ask this once, but I want the whole truth. I think I deserve that much."

Annabeth and I shared a look. "Yes," I said, "you do deserve the truth. But, I am warning you that you probably won't believe it. Just remember, when you want to interrupt us and tell us to stop lying and telling tall tales that if we truly did want to tell you another lie, we would at least make it a believable one."

With that, Annabeth started to tell our extremely rational guardian the truth about us or at least a brief summary including gods and monsters, quests and wars, and of course interdimensional portal travel. She even told him about our newly discovered similarities to the Force-sensitives of this universe. At certain parts, Annabeth would pause, so I would take over talking. To his credit, Panaka did not interrupt us once.

The room filled with silence when we were finally done. After another tense moment, I broke it. "So yeah, that's pretty much the highlights of Annabeth's and my past. Sorry about lying and everything, but we figured there was no way you would have believed us if we told you this eight months ago. You probably would have thought we were mentally deranged or something."

Panaka sighed and rubbed his head. "Honestly, I barely believe it now. Except for the fact that Master Jinn clearly believes you, and as you said, if you really wanted to lie, you would clearly choose a more believable story. Plus, it does explain some of your oddities I have noticed. I assumed you told Qui-Gon all of this."

Annabeth shook her head. "Not exactly. We only told him about our heritage and how we got here."

"I guess we felt like you deserved to know the real us, not just what we are and where we came from," I added. In that moment, I realized that a huge weight had been removed from my chest. It was nice to know that someone else in this universe knew the truth. Not only how we got here, but also everything we had lost. Perhaps that was the crazy, wise Jedi's intent the whole time. He knew that we just needed someone to confide in.

"Children of gods," Panaka muttered to himself and shook his head. "Thank you for trusting me with the truth. I may not be happy about it, but I do understand why you were hesitant to tell me before. Does anyone else know?"

"Nope, though I suspect Qui-Gon may be telling Obi-Wan as we speak," Annabeth answered. I shot her a confused look, and she shrugged. "On the way to see the Queen, Qui-Gon asked if he could tell his apprentice. He felt it would help Obi-Wan be less close-minded. I didn't see any harm since I figured the Jedi Council would need to know about us anyways if we wanted their help in getting home."

"Very well, but I think we should not tell anyone else about your true origins," Panaka reasoned. "It would be safer for you. Plus, I doubt anyone outside of the Jedi Order would believe it anyways."

"So, you won't tell the Queen or anyone else in Naboo's government?" I asked.

Panaka shook his head. "No, as long as you do not use these powers of yours to harm the people of Naboo, I do not see any reason to burden Her Highness."

I let out a breath that I hadn't even realized I had been holding. For a while, our discussion was a lot less serious. I demonstrated some water manipulation and showed Panaka Riptide. He marveled at how the blade just passed right through him. "This can really stop a lightsaber?" he asked. "Not many known materials can."

"Yep, if that's what those cool laser swords are called," I replied. "I don't think normal Celestial bronze would have lasted more than two blows, but luckily Riptide is special. It has its own source of water power, plus whatever magic an immortal friend of mine gave it."

"So, my drakon bone sword won't be much good against them," Annabeth remarked.

"Probably not," I agreed, "but at least it can be used to stop whoever the Hutts send at us when we go back to Tatooine."

"Ah yes, about that," Panaka interjected. "I know you made some unbreakable oath to free the slaves on Tatooine, but as long as you are in my custody, you will not go around challenging one of the most dangerous clans in the galaxy."

"What? That means I have to wait over three whole years!"

"Cheer up, Seaweed Brain, we can use that time to brush up on some needed skills and come up with a plan worthy of my mom, plus several backup plans," Annabeth stated.

"I will do everything I can to help you prepare," Panaka added. "Even if it is an impossible mission, I want to give you every opportunity you have to succeed, including time. So, do I have your word that you will wait?"

Annabeth and I both agreed, though I was a little upset that we would have to wait so many years. Before he left, Panaka informed us that it would take five days to reach Coruscant. I was not looking forward to being stuck on a spaceship for that long, but at least I could get out of this medbay tomorrow.

Later that evening, Padmé, Shmi, and Anakin came in to eat dinner with us since I was stuck in mebay-arrest. After I ensured Anakin that I was fine, he excitedly told me about visiting the queen and getting to see the cockpit. One of the nicer pilots even started showing him the controls. Padmé thanked me for my bravery in facing the Sith, and Annabeth jokingly pleaded, "Please Padmé, don't encourage his foolish and rash behavior."

Anakin looked at me a little wistfully, and I had a feeling he wished Padmé was praising him for his bravery. I suspected the boy had developed a bit of a crush on the handmaiden. Piper would have found the whole thing adorable. I just wished the boy would have a much simpler love life than me. My thoughts were interrupted when Anakin asked, "Percy, how were you able to fight the Sith? I thought only Jedi could fight Siths. Are you and Annabeth Jedi too?" Before I could even answer his questions, he frowned and shook his head. "But you don't act like a Jedi."

I laughed. "No definitely not a Jedi, thank goodness. As for fighting evil dudes, unfortunately, I've had to do a lot of that for the past five years."

At Padmé's confused look Annabeth gave a more technical explanation. "It turns out that Percy and I are Force-sensitives though we are a little different from the ones in this galaxy and didn't even know what the Force was until last night. We come from a place very far away from here where the Force works differently, and there aren't any Jedi or Sith. But, it's still very dangerous for us, so Percy and I had to learn how to defend ourselves a long time ago. We sort of got here by accident, and no one knows how to get us back home," she added for Anakin and Shmi's sake.

Anakin was still looking at me a little puzzled. "Percy, do you not like the Jedi? You sort of make a funny face every time I bring them up." Annabeth laughed at that.

"Uhh, it's kind of complicated," I told the boy. "Let's just say I have mixed feelings about them. I get that they defend peace and justice and all that really good stuff, and I am a huge fan of those lightsaber things. But, at the same time, they seem way too strict and a little arrogant based on what Qui-Gon's told me and my observations. It's too early for me to judge them, but they seem stuck in tradition and close-minded and way too serious. Like Obi-Wan, that guy really needs to learn to live a little. Would it kill him to smile a little more? I think that's going to be my goal while I'm stuck on this ship the next five days, just so I don't die of boredom."

Before they left, Shmi told us that the Queen had made her and Anakin honorary citizens of Naboo and that when everything was back to normal she would probably settle on the planet. While I was happy to hear this, I didn't like the idea that she and Anakin had to be separated. After all the things that kept me away from my own mom, like boarding schools, my uncle kidnapping her, my aunt kidnapping me etc., I didn't think children should be separated from their parents. I wondered if it was another one of those crazy traditions of the Jedi.

* * *

I was startled awake an hour or so after the night cycle started. I instinctively drew Riptide, and I could hear Annabeth reaching for her blaster on the other uncomfortable hospital cot next to mine. There was a gasp, and in the light of my glowing sword, I saw a small, familiar, blond head. Annabeth and I both relaxed, and she switched on one of the lights.

"Wow, Percy! That's a cool sword! What is it made out of?"

"Umm, Celestial bronze," I said, my mind still trying to process the fact that I was up and also not getting attacked. "It's that same material as those wires Annabeth gave you for the pod. What are you doing up Ani? Shouldn't you be sleeping?"

"I couldn't fall asleep, and I really didn't want to end up waking my mom. After everything that happened today she was really tired, and she looked so peaceful sleeping. I'm really sorry if I woke you and Annabeth up, but I didn't know where else to go."

I wanted to tell the boy that I had a rough day too and was tired and actually sleeping peacefully for a change. But, it was hard to stay mad at the kid after he said that last part with this lost look on his face. Instead, I scooched over on my cot and patted a spot next to me. "Well, then I guess you might as well come sit up here and tell me what's on your mind."

After he got settled on the cot, he said, "I just hope C-3PO will be okay. I didn't mean to leave him all alone, but there wasn't really any time to disassemble him or even room to pack him up. I didn't even have time to say bye to Kinster."

Hmm, not getting a chance to say goodbye, that was something I could definitely relate to. "C-3PO will be fine. You did a good job building him, so he will probably find a good home. As for Kinster, I'm sure he will understand, but if it makes you feel better, maybe I could send him a message from you once things on Naboo settle down."

"That's a good idea! And, you're really going to go back to Tatooine to free him, right?"

"Yep, though it's going to take a few extra years. Panaka's enforcing his legal guardianship, so we can't leave for Tatooine again until I turn 21. Do you feel better now?"

Anakin shrugged, "I guess so. Hey Percy?"

"Hmm?"

"Could you tell me those stories about your stars from home?"

"Oh, sure I guess." I started trying to think of a good one to tell and settled on my namesake. "A long time ago there was this boy named Perseus, and he really had rotten luck."

"Perseus! That sounds a lot like your name," Anakin exclaimed.

Annabeth couldn't help herself. She started laughing but still managed to get out, "That's because it is."

"What do you mean? I thought his name was Percy," Anakin asked, confused.

"My full name is Perseus. I'm sort of named after the guy I was telling you about. But Perseus is kind of a mouthful, so I really rather people just call me Percy," I told him. Oh well the cat's out of the bag now. I liked that no one in this universe knew my full name, hopefully the info wouldn't spread too far. I didn't miss monsters or angry immortals using it right before they tried to kill me.

"Like how everyone calls me Ani even though my whole name is Anakin?"

"Yes, exactly," I replied. "Now, no more interruptions if you want me to finish the story." As I started up again, Annabeth turned off the lights. She must have put Daedalus 2.0 into projection mode because the constellation Perseus appeared on the ceiling. It switched whenever I mentioned one of the other constellations related to the story, like Pegasus, Cepheus, Cassiopeia, and Andromeda.

When I was done, Anakin murmured tiredly, "Thanks for the story, Percy," and was out before I could tell him no problem. I was too tired to try and move the boy back to wherever he was supposed to be sleeping. My last thought as I drifted off to sleep was that this was what it must be like to have a little brother, something I had always wanted. Now, don't get me wrong, I loved my brother Tyson and often felt like I had to watch out for the big guy, like a big brother would. But, the one problem with having a cyclops as a baby brother – he wasn't exactly little.


	15. Tartarus Sprouts Daisies

**Thanks for all the reviews, favorites, and follows.**

Chapter 15: Tartarus Sprouts Daisies

The next day, doc droid finally let me out of the medbay after lunchtime. Those bacta patches might not work as fast as nectar and ambrosia, but they did do a better job than most mortal methods. The cut on my back was now just another faint scar, and my ribs felt fine. The droid did say no strenuous physical activity until tomorrow, and I knew Annabeth would enforce that even if she had to drag me back to the medbay herself.

We moved our bags and stuff back to our old sleeping area in the spare equipment room, but our once quiet little sanctuary away from prying Jedi was now crowded with Anakin, Shmi, Padmé, and Jar-Jar. "Hey Percy, glad the med droid released you!" Anakin said happily. He looked pretty busy fiddling with spare parts at the table. Annabeth went over to check it out, and soon, the two of them were deep in genius land. They might as well have been speaking a foreign language. I didn't know what Jar-Jar was doing. But, I was sure that I really didn't want to find out, so I headed over to Shmi and Padmé.

"Hi Percy, it's good to see you up and about again," Padmé greeted. "Hopefully, you're careful to stay that way. I wouldn't recommend doing anything too reckless in the near future. Otherwise, I think Annabeth might be the reason you end up in the medbay next time."

I laughed, "Yeah, she does have a tendency to kick my butt whenever I do something particularly foolish."

"I was just telling Shmi more about life on Naboo," Padmé said. I didn't know if it was just me, but her cheery tone seemed a little flat, and her usually infectious smile was forced. "Maybe you could talk about some of your experiences since you came from off-planet as well."

I shrugged and started telling Shmi how great and accepting the Naboo people were, and how beautiful and peaceful the planet was. As I talked I noticed, Padmé seemed to get sadder, and I realized she must be really worried about all the people left on Naboo. Who knew what the Trade Federation was doing to her home. She must be trying to put on a brave face and distract herself by hanging out with Shmi and Anakin. Clearly, talking about Naboo was not helping. Then I got an idea. "Naboo even has their own written language. It's very elegant, and personally, I like it way better than Aurebesh." I didn't add that this was because Futhork was a lot closer to ancient Greek. "Maybe, Padmé could help teach you how to read it."

Padmé gave me a grateful look. "That's an excellent idea, Percy. I mean if you feel like learning it now?" she asked Shmi. Shmi agreed, probably since there wasn't much else to do for the next four days stuck on a spaceship. Padmé scrounged around until she found some datapads and started enthusiastically showing Shmi the different characters. I stayed and helped for a little bit, but I was having trouble sitting still. After spending almost, a full day lying in a bed, I was extra restless, so I decided to see what Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan were up to.

Annabeth joined me as I left the crowded room. "You know you can stay and help Anakin with his project," I told her.

"And let you sneak off and practice sword fighting with the Jedi? I don't think so," she replied.

I don't know how she knew that was what I was going to do, but I tried to look innocent. "I wasn't going to do that. I would never go against a doctor's recommendation." She didn't even bother to comment, just rolled her eyes.

I remembered how sad Padmé was and asked, "Did any word from Naboo come while we were on Tatooine?"

Annabeth nodded, "Yes, apparently our first night there, the ship received a transmission from Governor Bilbo. He said a lot of people were dying."

"Do you think it's true or just a trick from the Trade Federation?"

She sighed. "I'm not completely sure. Most likely it's just a trap to get the Queen to come back to Naboo and sign the treaty. But, nothing about this makes sense, and until we know the true motive behind the Trade Federation's take over, I don't think we can be sure."

I nodded and really hoped the Naboo would be okay. Hopefully, we would get back soon with help. "Speaking about knowing things, have you looked at what we stole from Jabba yet?" I asked.

"Nope, and I'm not going to until Naboo's free. I've got to focus on one planet at a time."

Despite the seriousness of the situation, I grinned, "Now I bet that's a phrase you never thought you would have to say. Back home, we had enough trouble saving one planet."

* * *

We found Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon in the main hold. Qui-Gon watched Obi-Wan intently as the younger Jedi practiced solo with his lightsaber, but the movement was so graceful and fluid that it looked more like a choreographed dance than fighting practice. The swordsman in me admired how one move seamlessly flowed into another. In my head, I started trying to incorporate some of the moves into my own crazy, chaotic style. I'm not sure how long I stood there hypnotized, but eventually, Obi-Wan shut-off his lightsaber breaking my trance.

"That was a good combination, mainly Ataru but with some elements of Soresu," Qui-Gon stated with a hint of a smile. "I am glad you were able to keep up with your practice while I was gone. The extra work shows."

"Thank you, Master," Obi-Wan replied.

"Wow, those were some really cool moves!" I exclaimed. Obi-Wan just acknowledged my comment with a nod of his head. He looked at me even more suspiciously than before, so I figured Qui-Gon must have told him about our heritage and how we got here.

"Annabeth, Percy," Qui-Gon greeted us. "It is good to see you both well. Obi-Wan and I were just about to meditate. Perhaps, now would be a good time for your first lesson."

"Umm, tempting, but I'll take a pass on that," I said. "I've had 24 hours for all my hyperactivity to build up since some people made me lie in a bed all day. Sitting still is the last thing I need."

"On the contrary, proper meditation will quell restlessness, so now is when you should meditate," Qui-Gon replied.

"Oh, come on Seaweed Brain, it's not like you can do anything else right now," Annabeth pointed out. "Plus, it will be interesting to learn how the Jedi have developed techniques to gain so much self-control. It might even be a way to help other demigods handle their ADHD better."

As soon as I saw the curiosity sparking through her grey eyes, I knew it would be a losing battle. Trying to keep Annabeth from learning something new was like taking a jar of peanut butter away from Tyson. Since she seemed determined to stay by me today, I would get dragged along for the ride. Rule one of dating the daughter of a battle strategy goddess: pick your battles very carefully. After the stunt I pulled yesterday, I guess I did sort of owe her one. "Oh, fine," I plopped down on the floor.

"You might be surprised. It might actually help you," Annabeth said as she sat down next to me and looked expectantly at Qui-Gon. Obi-Wan sat cross legged on the other side of the room. His eyes were already closed. He was so still that I was tempted to poke him just to make sure he hadn't somehow turned into a garden statue. Qui-Gon also sat down next to his apprentice and closed his eyes.

"Jedi meditate in order to achieve a deeper state of relaxation which increases our emotional control and enhances our connection to the Force, allowing us to gain a greater state of awareness," Qui-Gon lectured in his calm, soothing, mentory voice, reminding me of when Chiron was my Latin teacher. "We focus on achieving inner peace, serenity, and harmony. Now, I would like you to close your eyes and clear your mind. Take deep full breaths and focus on the rhythm of your breathing."

He paused to give us time to do as he said. However, as soon as I tried to clear my mind the repeating thought that this was stupid kept getting in the way. "To truly achieve inner peace," Qui-Gon continued, "You must shed your emotions. Now focus on whatever emotion is most prevalent to you right now whether it is annoyance, worry, confusion, curiosity, or restlessness. Acknowledge the feeling, understand why you feel it and how it affects you. Then, let that emotion go. Become an empty vessel for the Force to fill."

I tried. I really did, if only for Annabeth's sake. But my thoughts kept going in a vicious cycle: _I'm bored, because this is stupid; I'm feeling annoyed because this is stupid, etc_.

"Percy," Annabeth hissed, "stop fidgeting so much." I hadn't noticed that I was bouncing my crossed legs up and down. I immediately stopped. When Annabeth made another annoyed sound, I realized I was tapping my fingers on the floor.

Finally, I just gave up and opened my eyes. "How are you staying so still? You have ADHD too."

She sighed, "I guess I just have practice because unlike someone I actually wanted to learn something in school and classes for the past twelve years, so I forced myself to concentrate at least for a while." Her tone softened, as she said, "You did well in your classes on Naboo, focus on how you managed that."

I thought back to listening to lectures about the formation of underground oceans, and my fingers instinctively started drumming a rhythm on my knee which I realized was what they did during said lectures about oceans. At this point Obi-Wan muttered something about my Force presence being worse than my noises and that it was easier to meditate in the middle of a storm. I'm not sure if that gave Qui-Gon an idea or if even the Jedi Master was getting annoyed with my inability to stay still because he stood up and moved right across from me, so that when he sat down, I had no choice but to look into those wise, blue eyes.

"Alright, Percy let us try a different approach," Qui-Gon said patiently. "Annabeth you were doing pretty well with the traditional method so keep focusing on letting go of those emotions." He paused and studied me intently before saying, "Close your eyes again Percy and focus on my voice."

"This is not going to work," I grumbled.

"It is nearly impossible to succeed at anything if you do not believe you can. But please try, just to humor an old man's curiosity and love for unorthodox methods."

"Well, I do like doing thing unorthodox."

"That's the spirit. Now focus on my voice. I assume you have been on a beach by an ocean before?" I nodded. "Very well, I want you to picture that beach in your mind and imagine that you are standing on it. Feel the sand on your feet, smell the salt in the air, hear the roar of the waves."

I'm not sure if it was just the soothing tone of Qui-Gon's voice or some Jedi mind trick, but I immediately imagined walking along Montauk. I could practically smell the ocean even in the stale recycled air of the spaceship. "Now, wade into the water," Qui-Gon instructed. "Tell me, how does it feel?"

I imagined wading through the surf, feeling the cool water and the calm and strength I always got from my father's element. Somehow, I matched Qui-Gon's quiet tone, "The water feels refreshing. It's powerful. The waves are relentless, unrestrained, crashing into the shore."

"Good, focus on the rhythm of the waves, feel the swell and release," Qui-Gon said. I imagined feeling the currents, the constant surge of the tide. "Now increase the waves, make them larger, stronger." I applied my will to the water, and it responded. The water got more violent and the waves surged over 10 feet, then 20. "Now, slowly, little by little calm the water until it gently laps along the shore."

With each breath I focused on slowing down the currents a little more. Occasionally, the water slipped from my control and surged faster than I wanted, but slowly I bent the tide to my will. The waves got smaller and smaller settling down. Eventually, there were no more white caps, just the gentle pulse of the water washing on the shore and then returning to the ocean. I felt a strange desire to head away from the shore, so I started walking across the calm waters until when I turned around, I could no longer see the beach. I kept going though. It was like I could hear some distant call, but it wasn't really a sound, more like a feeling.

I'm not sure how long I walked, wherever I was time didn't really have meaning. But, I stopped when I reached an invisible barrier. On the other side, the water was as smooth as glass. It felt different, sort of like how I could instantly tell the difference between freshwater and saltwater. I pushed my hand against the barrier, but it couldn't get through. Struck by a thought, I focused on calming the water around me completely, until it was practically frozen in place and as still as that other water. I stepped forward and passed across the invisible barrier. As soon as I stepped on that strange water, ripples fanned out all around me spreading away from me for as far as I could see.

The next thing, I knew, someone was shaking my shoulder. Instinctively, I lashed out my legs to unbalance my attacker and sprung to my feet, hand flying to my pocket for Riptide as my eyes opened only to see Qui-Gon quickly backing away hands in the air.

"Are you okay, Percy?" Annabeth said softly behind me.

I nodded, feeling a little embarrassed about my reaction. "Sorry about that Qui-Gon, you startled me."

"Something I will do my best to avoid in the future," the Jedi promised. "Annabeth did warn me you might react like that, but I figured you would want to eat dinner."

"Wait, it's dinner time?"

Annabeth nodded, "Percy, you've been meditating for over three hours."

"No way, maybe an hour most."

"I came out like an hour before you, and I started to get worried because you were so still. But, Qui-Gon said you were fine, just in a very deep meditative trance."

"I'm impressed," Qui-Gon stated, "I sensed that both of you managed to at least feel the surrounding Force."

"Oh, that's what that was. It kind of felt, I don't know, foreign." I struggled to describe the feeling. "It reminded me of fresh water, like I could control it if I focused enough, but it's not as nice as salt water."

"Hmm, maybe it feels like that because it is the surrounding Force as opposed to your own power core," Qui-Gon mused. "Or possibly, it is because you are from a different dimension."

I just shrugged, not exactly worried about the details. That was way too much water to figuratively calm and travel across just, so I could move a few things without touching them. I would rather just stick with the powers I was familiar with. I turned too Annabeth. "Well I guess the next time we take a lovely vacation to the Eternal Pit of Damnation, we will have to look for those daisies because they've got to be there if I just meditated for three hours!"

Annabeth just smiled at the comment, and we followed Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon to the mess hall. "How do you feel now, Seaweed Brain?" she asked.

It took me a second to gather my thoughts, "I actually feel calmer, more grounded somehow, so maybe these Jedi are onto something."

* * *

That night we shared our sleeping area with Shmi and Anakin. Once again, Anakin begged for another story about our stars from home. I figured if I did Hercules I could knock out like half the sky. Annabeth got the laptop ready for the constellation projection show, and I started, "A long time ago, there was this guy Hercules. Many people back home considered him to be the greatest hero of all. Personally, I think he's more of a credit stealing, arrogant douche."

"Percy, the story," Annabeth reminded.

"Right. Though to be fair, his luck was even worse than Perseus'. In fact, whenever I'm feeling bad about my life, I think 'Well at least it's not as bad as Hercules', and I feel much better."

Anakin laughed, "You act like you know this guy! It's just a story that your scientists named the stars after, right?"

"Yeah, silly me, it's just a story. Anyways, Hercules' problems literally started at his birth. . ."

* * *

By day three of hurtling through space in a fancy metal box at speeds faster than light, I was starting to get cabin fever. Sure, the meditation worked better than I thought it would, but nothing beats actually getting to swing a sword around. Annabeth agreed to a sparring session since the doc droid had okayed me for physical activity today even though I felt fine yesterday. We headed over to the large hold where we had meditated. It was the only room big enough to really swing swords in except maybe the Queen's throne room. Somehow, I didn't think Panaka would like that too much.

We warmed up with some stretches before drawing our swords and facing off. We started with a few drills and then a controlled spar where we worked on new moves and took the time to improve our technique. I tried to mix in some of the cooler moves I saw the Jedi use. After an hour we switched to a competitive duel. Now when Annabeth and I enter dueling mode, it's a no holding back fight (minus invisibility hats and water powers) until someone wins, filled with every sly trick, crazy idea, or elaborate plan we could think of. I mainly just let my chaotic autopilot take over.

Sword fighting was the one thing that I could consistently beat Annabeth at which drove her nuts because she did not like to lose. So, she would use all sorts of distraction tricks or come up with these ridiculously complex plans that she called 'sequences' which were a super long series of moves that forced me out of position, so she could win. In our last duel on Naboo, I had gotten stuck in one of these sequences and lost. I was determined to not let that happen this time. I whirled and slashed, parried and blocked. The space was a little too small for some of my crazier maneuvers, but I was still having a blast. Even though we knew the other's moves as well as our own, I never got bored of it. There was something so comforting about the familiar rhythm, a constant no matter if we were practicing in the arena at Camp Half-Blood or on a spaceship in a different universe.

I noticed that Annabeth got this sparkle in her eyes which meant I fell right into one of her planned sequences. Now, I don't really play chess, but Annabeth fights like she is playing that ultimate game of strategy. She probably had the next 20 moves planned out, all of them slowly funneling me towards losing this duel. Somehow this time, I needed to break her sequence and mess up the plan. And the best way to mess up a plan was to be unpredictable. I fought back harder, adding extra moves, and spins, but somehow Annabeth must have predicted that because she started smiling which usually meant the trap was about to be sprung.

Finally, I did the stupidest thing I could think of. I had managed to create a little space between us. Normally, I would charge in for an offensive attack, but that's what Annabeth expected me to do, so instead I threw my sword at her head, breaking the first rule of sword fighting: don't lose your sword. I used Annabeth's surprise at my stupidity, and as she deflected Riptide with her own blade, I swept her feet out from under her with my legs and pinned her to the ground. I couldn't help my smirk, "Yield?"

She glared at me, and I felt her try to throw me off with her legs. I quickly pressed my knees into her thighs and used my extra weight to stop her. Then she lifted her head up as if to kiss me. I shook my head, "Oh no, I'm not falling for that one again!"

She grumbled, "Fine, I yield." I got off her and held out a hand to help her up. Next thing I knew, I was on my back, and Annabeth was standing above me.

Really, I should have been expecting that. "Sore, loser," I said with a laugh as I got back up and put Riptide away.

"That's for messing up a sequence that I've been planning for weeks! Next, time I'll have to have a Seaweed Brain contingency for when you come up with an idiotic idea," she huffed.

"But, if an idiotic idea works, is it still idiotic?" I asked grinning.

Before our argument could go any further, we were interrupted by clapping. I looked up and saw Qui-Gon politely clapping by the door with Obi-Wan standing coolly next to him. They must have come in, and we were too immersed in the duel to notice them. "Thank you, Percy and Annabeth, for that impressive display. Clearly, you are both skilled with the sword."

"Thank you, sir," Annabeth responded. "Though I imagine our combat training and styles are quite different from the Jedi."

"Different is sometimes good," Qui-Gon remarked. "As for styles, the Jedi recognize seven different forms of lightsaber combat ranging from defensive to extremely offensive, and most become proficient in at least one. In fact, to mix things up a bit, Percy, would you mind sparring with Obi-Wan if you are not too tired from your previous bout."


	16. I Borrow a Lightsaber

**Thanks for all the reviews, favorites, and follows!**

 _Previously: "In fact, to mix things up a bit, Percy, would you mind sparring with Obi-Wan if you are not too tired from your previous bout."_

* * *

Chapter 16: I Borrow a Lightsaber

I was never one to say no to a friendly duel even if I was a little tired from practicing with Annabeth, so I shrugged my shoulders and said, "Sure. Just please none of those Force pushes. I really don't like flying backwards."

"It is extremely difficult to perform a Force push against another Force-sensitive during a duel," Obi-Wan explained, like it should be obvious. "Yes, you can push objects towards them and use that to your advantage although even this is difficult in a fight. To actually push them with the Force requires you to overcome their Force defenses which blocks from such direct attacks in the Force. As long as the Force-sensitive is a competent user and maintains his focus, his Force defenses should prevent this from happening unless he is seriously out matched. After witnessing your duel with Annabeth, it seems that both of you have rather strong Force defenses when you fight which should make it rather difficult for any Force using opponent to push you."

"Umm, but then how did that Sith guy do it, and then you did it too?" I pointed a finger accusingly at Qui-Gon. "Plus, back home my grandfather and a great-uncle did it also."

"Sith gain their power from channeling their anger and hatred," Qui-Gon clarified. "I imagine after you wounded him, the Sith's hatred towards you filled him with enough temporary strength to Force push you even with your strong Force defenses. It was after all quite a dirty trick you pulled on him. The fact that he could not sense your intent probably amplified his anger even more." I grimaced at the slight disapproval in Qui-Gon's tone. I guess it wasn't the Jedi way to trick and deceive your opponents, but that was sort of the Greek way. Though I will admit, that particular move was not one of my most honorable moments.

"As for me," Qui-Gon continued his explanation, "as the fight dragged on, your defenses were focused more towards the Sith. You must have subconsciously considered me an ally which allowed me to more easily bypass your defenses and shove you, so you could escape though it did still require tremendous focus on my part. In the case of your relatives, I assume they are on your father's side in which case a pure being of the Force would probably be able to crush through almost any Force defense as long as they didn't try to directly kill you with the Force, though I am sure some are even powerful enough to do that if they choose to."

"I guess that sort of makes sense except that Annabeth and I have never really trained to develop this Force defense."

"I think, given your unique nature, that your Force defenses come naturally when you fight, like your increased strength and reflexes which is fortunate for you," Qui-Gon said thoughtfully. "Many Jedi require years of training to develop their defenses."

I shrugged my shoulders and uncapped Riptide, but Obi-Wan seemed to hesitate, "Master what do you expect us to accomplish with this duel? Percy does not even use one of the forms."

"True, Percy does not use specific stances and techniques taught by the Jedi, but the forms are more than just a learned sequence of moves," Qui-Gon instructed in that all knowing voice of his. "They describe a personality and style of fighting not just the technique. Therefore, which form matches Percy's style of fighting?"

Obi-Wan frowned as a pensive expression appeared on his usually unreadable face. "It has the unpredictability and staccato characteristics of Form VII, and though Percy seems to use his emotions while he fights," his frown deepened at that, "his movements seem to lack the overall viciousness, malice, and rage that I would expect from a true Form VII practitioner, particularly a Juyo user."

"Excellent analysis my young Padawan." Qui-Gon said with pride. It definitely felt weird being part of some Jedi teaching moment and having no idea what they were talking about. "Now do you see what a valuable experience this is, particularly since we will likely have another confrontation with the Juyo practicing Sith?"

"Yes, Master. I am sorry for questioning you," Obi-Wan humbly replied.

Qui-Gon gave one of his signature, wise old-man smiles. "It is difficult to learn without questions, Padawan."

Obi-Wan stepped forward and took off his brown cloak. He removed his lightsaber from his belt and eyed Riptide skeptically.

"Don't worry, we practiced with real weapons all the time back home. Chiron, our mentor, has a very strict no maiming policy," I informed him.

That comment did manage to get a slight smile out of Obi-Wan, "No maiming policies are good, but that was not my primary concern. I've just never dueled against a shorter, metal blade before. I am surprised it lasted so long against the Sith's lightsaber."

"Nevertheless, perhaps it would be best if Percy used a lightsaber instead," Qui-Gon suggested as he pulled out his own and adjusted something at the bottom of the hilt.

"Your lightsabers are safer than Percy's sword?" Annabeth asked doubtfully.

"Nearly all Jedi lightsabers have an adjustable setting that controls the power of the blade," Obi-Wan answered. "We often use the low-power setting for training. It just stings a little on contact and leaves bruises." Then, he focused on his master and frowned. This guy really needed to learn how to loosen up. "But Master, surely you are not going to let a non-Jedi use your saber. The Council would be furious. The rules clearly state–"

"Nothing about a fellow Force-user from another universe not being able to use a lightsaber," Qui-Gon interrupted. "Therefore, until the rules specifically mention extradimensional Force-users, I am not breaking the rules." He extended his lightsaber to me.

I capped Riptide and reached for Qui-Gon's lightsaber when I suddenly thought of something and hesitated. "Umm, no offense, but I'm sort of picky when it comes to blade balance, and frankly, as awesome and super cool as your lightsabers are, they don't seem really balanced."

"No, I am afraid the balance is quite different than what you are used to," Qui-Gon confirmed. "But, I would still like you to try to use it. We will start slow, so you can get a feel for the blade. If you feel like you are having trouble adjusting, then you can use your own sword instead."

"Sounds good." I reached out and grabbed the supper cool laser sword. The hilt was way lighter than Riptide, but the handgrip felt comfortable enough. Once I was sure that I wouldn't make a complete fool of myself by accidentally swinging it into my leg or something, I pressed the red button and the glowing green blade emerged.

I carefully swung the blade a few times trying to get a feel of the reach as it hummed around me. I quickly realized that I couldn't really feel the blade at all since almost all of the weight was in the hilt. The blade itself was pretty much massless. I would have to be very precise with my wrist movement, otherwise I might lose the blade so to speak and miss my intended target or hit myself even. "Wow, this feels weird!" Finally, I faced Obi-Wan who was patiently waiting with his own blade activated. "All right let's give this a go."

"Please start with a slow Shii-Cho sequence, Obi-Wan," Qui-Gon instructed.

Obi-Wan nodded his understanding and began with a super slow downward swing. I met his blade with a horizontal block. The blades made a crashing sound on contact that was somehow much more satisfying then the clang of two metal swords.

* * *

I would like to say that I was a natural with the lightsaber, but that wasn't the case. Sure, I did pretty well when Obi-Wan moved slow. Unfortunately, when he sped up, my blade would miss his swings because I couldn't tell where my blade was exactly. I have pretty good refluxes, so I've never felt so uncoordinated in my life except maybe trying to dance at a middle school dance with Annabeth. Luckily, since he was still moving relatively slow, I usually managed to dodge Obi-Wan's swings even after I failed at blocking them, so I only got hit a few times. But, each hit from the lightsaber did sting a little.

Obi-Wan must have known I was getting frustrated because in between swings he said, "You are actually doing quite well for using a lightsaber for the first time." I know it was a compliment, but it didn't make me feel any better.

It didn't help that Qui-Gon kept saying things like, "Feel the blade with the Force. Do not rely on your physical senses."

Finally, I stepped back and turned off the blade. "Look," I told the old Jedi, annoyed, "I can't feel anything with this Force of yours since it takes three hours of meditation for me to even reach it."

"Patience, young one," Qui-Gon said with that irritating smile, "I understand you are frustrated. I will admit that I did not anticipate such a steep learning curve since you are clearly trained in combat and have the reflexes of a Jedi. Perhaps, I should phrase it differently, trust in your instincts."

I snorted at that since the only thing my instincts were telling me was that the lightsaber was a freaking unbalanced weapon. Annabeth held out her water bottle towards me and said, "Here, Seaweed Brain."

I turned back towards Obi-Wan, not quite ready to give up yet. "Thanks, but I'm not thirsty right now." I focused on the weapon in my hand, with my finger hovering over the power button. Suddenly, cool water splashed all over me. I was so shocked that I didn't bother willing myself dry. Plus, it sort of felt good after over two hours of working out. An extra burst of energy ran through my body, like if I just drank an espresso, and my senses opened up. I turned to Annabeth, shocked, as she just stood there with her empty water bottle and a grin on her face. "Umm, thanks for the energy boost, I guess, and I'm totally going to get you back for that later. But what were you even thinking?"

She sighed, "Jeez, I don't know? How about your first time ever training with a sword? You told me that you disarmed Luke even with an unbalanced blade after you dumped water on your head."

"Oh," I said realizing where she was headed.

She shrugged, "I just figured it could help with the balance problem and maybe make you more aware of your blade. I know it's just a quick fix, but while you've got the extra kick try and see if you can connect the feeling of using the lightsaber with something water related. I think one reason why you're the most powerful son of Poseidon is because, in that crazy Seaweed Brain of yours, you manage to connect almost anything to water and that taps into you power, so to speak. Like, when you talked about dodging bullets you compared their paths to water currents in the ocean, and you could sense them. And, how Qui-Gon managed to get you to meditate yesterday. Not to mention, your train of thought for the Tartarus incident."

She didn't need to elaborate. I knew she was referring to when I controlled Akhlys' poison after I realized that the poisons flowing towards me resembled streams and thought _hey I can control streams, why not streams of poison_.

"I don't understand. How can water help with a weapon's balance?" Obi-Wan asked confused. "Though, I did sense a large flare in Percy's Force presence."

"When it comes to Percy, water helps with everything," Annabeth answered. "Although, because he's such a Seaweed Brain, he doesn't always think to use it."

Well, in my defense, sometimes using my powers felt too much like cheating, and I didn't want to become too reliant on them. But, I guess if they really were connected to this Force, and if Obi-Wan was using the Force to wield his lightsaber, then, I could use my powers a little. I ignited the blade. It already seemed less awkward in my hand. I closed my eyes and felt the extra strength coursing through me. Now that my senses were more awake, I could feel the blade. Trust your instincts Qui-Gon had said. I could do that. That was Percy Survival 101. "All right let's go again, but full speed this time."

"Are you sure?" Obi-Wan asked skeptically.

"Yes, this time will be different. Trust me," I replied.

He started with a horizontal slash, but I could tell he wasn't going at full speed yet. So, I easily blocked it and pressed forward with a fast, offensive combination of my own. He hastily blocked my swings. I couldn't stop the grin that spread across my face at his look of surprise. Then, the fight really started.

Obi-Wan was really good. His moves seemed foreign, but I guess if I had to place his fighting style I would say it was a mix of the physical aspects of Thalia's with the smarts of Annabeth's which was a dangerous combination. The small space was a huge advantage for me though because he couldn't do those fancy acrobatics these Jedi seemed so fond of.

I pushed Obi-Wan hard, as I fought through my growing fatigue. I let my instincts take over, with lots of slashing, some low rolls, a few kicks, and thrown elbows. Eventually, I saw an opening and went for it before I got too tired. I tried to use my favorite disarming move, the one Luke first taught me all those years ago. It involved sliding the flat of your blade against your opponent's sword towards the hilt then twisting it so that your opponent is forced to drop his sword. But, after my lightsaber made contact with Obi-Wan's, the blade would not slide forward. It just remained there. Obi-Wan took advantage of my surprise. I was off balance since I expected my blade to move forward, and it didn't. He quickly moved his arm in a large circular motion keeping the blades locked together and forcing me to drop the lightsaber. "Huh, so that's how you disarm with lightsabers since there's no sliding along the blades," I got out as I caught my breath.

Obi-Wan smiled and said, "It's not impossible to slide the blades along each other, but the electromagnetic fields from the blades do interfere with each other creating a lot of resistance so that it takes a great amount of force to perform that particular maneuver." At least he was breathing heavily as well. "If you had known the proper technique for disarming a lightsaber, I dare say, you would have won the bout."

I shrugged, "Maybe, but if we had more space so that you could do your fancy flips to avoid my attacks, I'm pretty sure you would have won."

Obi-Wan nodded, "Yes, that is a weakness of Ataru." At my confused look, he added, "The specific lightsaber form I use, so this is good practice since I will not always have ideal maneuverability. It forces me to brush up on the more defensive lightsaber form to fend off a more aggressive opponent."

"Yes, it was very good practice for both of you, I would say" Qui-Gon commented. "I am curious Percy, was your improved performance just due to the water Annabeth splashed on you?"

"Initially, yes. It gave me an energy boost and made me aware of the blade, but that boost only lasts for a little bit. During that time, I guess I was able to get a feel for the lightsaber using that trick Annabeth pointed out, connecting it to something I was familiar with that involved water. I realized that using the lightsaber felt like the time I had to use a high-pressure hose on a roof to stop flaming catapults shot by an army of giant cannibals."

"You compared using a lightsaber to using fire extinguishing equipment?" Obi-Wan questioned seeming a little miffed, like I had somehow insulted the lightsaber.

Qui-Gon just looked amused, "I am more interested in how you fended off an army of giant cannibals with a hose."

"Well, actually it was my second time fighting a lot of those guys, and both times my friends did most of the heavy lifting," I told Qui-Gon. "As for the hose/lightsaber similarities, I guess I was thinking relatively heavy nozzle directing beam of water, and relatively heavy hilt directing a beam of light. Made sense to my seaweed brain. I try not to question it when things work."

I picked up the lightsaber to give it back to Qui-Gon. Apparently, the lightsaber had automatically turned off when it left me hand. "Thanks, Qui-Gon, for letting me use this, even if that Jedi Council wouldn't be happy. It's a supper cool weapon though my favorite will always be Riptide."

Qui-Gon chuckled and accepted the lightsaber, clipping it back on his belt. "It truly is a shame that you and Annabeth were not from this universe or maybe came when you were younger. I feel like you both would have made excellent Jedi if given the proper training at a younger age."

I frowned at that, "Umm, in case you haven't noticed, Percy Jackson, rules, and authority don't usually go together, and you guys seem to have a lot of rules." Even Obi-Wan had to suppress a laugh at that. "Speaking about rules, is there some rule that says Shmi has to be on a different planet than Ani? It just seems kind of mean, making them split up."

Obi-Wan quickly got serious again and said, "The Jedi Code forbids attachments."

"What does that mean? Are you guys not allowed to send email attachments or something?" I asked.

"No, Seaweed Brain, he means like personal relationships," Annabeth translated for me.

"Huh, so no romance, like the Hunters of Artemis." I guessed that was why Obi-Wan got uncomfortable when ever Annabeth and I publicly displayed our relief that we were still alive. "But what does that have to do with Ani and Shmi, their family."

"Familial attachments are also forbidden," Obi-Wan clarified. "The Code teaches that personal attachments are dangerous. They can cloud our judgment so that we value one or a few lives over the many. This would compromise our ability to be peacekeepers for the whole galaxy. Also, individual relationships can lead to jealousy and other negative emotions that can cause a Jedi to fall to the dark side." Obi-Wan looked right at me as he said that, like he was hinting at something, but I was too distracted by the first part to really pay attention.

"How can this code of yours forbid family relationships? Like, how is that even possible? Surely, your Jedi-in-training miss their moms and family. Are they never allowed to visit or communicate? I mean, I practically grew up in boarding schools and that was hard enough."

"Anakin's case is unique," Qui-Gon said. "He is far older than most Jedi initiates, so he is more attached–"

"Wait," I interrupted. "Anakin's old? The kid's like nine. Are these Jedi initiates of yours usually in diapers when they start?" I couldn't help but chuckle at the idea of a baby in a diaper holding a little lightsaber. However, Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan remained serious.

"Jedi initiates typically start their training at the human equivalent of 3 years old, but many arrive at a Jedi temple before they are over a year old," Qui-Gon calmly stated.

I was shocked as my mind slowly processed what he was saying. Suddenly, I didn't feel like laughing either. "You take babies away from their families." My voice didn't sound like mine. It was flat, emotionless, dangerous. I felt a pressure building in my gut as a hissing sound came from the walls. Distantly, I heard an alarm blaring from the cockpit.

"Percy, not the plumbing!" Annabeth desperately warned. "It's too pressurized!" The fear in her voice snapped me out of it. I closed my eyes and tried to calm down. Annabeth grabbed my hand, "Think of that beach again Percy, calm the ocean in your mind."

I imagined Montauk, but this time the ocean looked like a hurricane was in full force with waves reaching 100 feet. I gritted my teeth and willed the ocean to be smooth. The pressure in my gut lessened, and I opened my eyes. I leaned my forehead against Annabeth's for a second, soaking in that my amazing girlfriend had helped me avoid another disaster. It was like the exploding toilets on the Argo II all over again, though the consequences of losing control on this ship would be way worse than flooding the lower decks and having an angry Leo yell at you. Who knew what would have happened with the high-pressure, futuristic plumbing or gods forbid the ship's coolant.

I turned back to the Jedi, who were both frowning at me, like I was a naughty kid. Before they could chastise me for losing my Zen or whatever it was, I said, "No wonder you guys can't be bothered to free the slaves in this galaxy. You are too busy stealing infants from their families."

"We do not steal infants," Obi-Wan replied looking offended. "We approach the parents, and they must give us their permission to bring their child to the Jedi Temple. What we do is perfectly legal within the laws of the Republic."

I was too angry to form words, so luckily Annabeth asked my question, "And if the parents refuse to give up their child?" The frigid tone in her voice told me that she wasn't too pleased with the Jedi recruitment method either.

"We respect their wishes of course," Qui-Gon responded calmly. "Though, most agree to give us their child. It is a great honor to be a Jedi, and we make sure the parents understand the full risks of an untrained Force-sensitive who could be a danger to herself and those near her."

"So, no pressure from the government or local authorities?" Annabeth questioned.

Obi-Wan winced slightly at that, but it was Qui-Gon who responded. "We have no control over the actions of the government whether it be at the local level or galactic. We leave that to the politicians."

I snorted at that. Even I could see the respect and political power the Jedi held as law enforcers even if they weren't politicians. "What about the kids?" I asked my voice shaking slightly. I was barely keeping my temper in check. "They don't get a say at all, and a three-year-old wouldn't even understand what's happening. But, that's why you want them so young, so they don't know anything different. I bet it makes brainwashing them into the perfect, obedient, emotionless Jedi a lot easier. My mother married a horrible, abusive man just so she could keep me close to her, and I risked my life, constantly fighting monsters, to have the chance to live with her. If I was born in this backwater universe, we probably would never have gotten that chance to really get to know each other or understand how much we love each other. But, wait, you guys think because of that love, that personal attachment, I'm going to turn into some evil, power-hungry dude that wants to take over the galaxy."

I couldn't take it anymore, so I stormed out of the room. The last thing I wanted to do was lose control again in front of the Jedi. No doubt they would blame my dangerous attachments, or the fact that I wasn't meditating at five. It would only reinforce in their minds that their inhuman recruitment and training was best. I was too worked up to be with Anakin and Shmi without screaming at the boy to stay away from all Jedi. The part of me that sounded like Annabeth knew that would be overreacting just a bit. So, I headed to the tiny medbay. The place I was so eager to escape from a day ago. I barged through the door, and the doc droid said, "What are you doing here Mister Jackson? You are no longer a patient."

"Thought I might need a check-up," I replied, but I walked right past the droid to the refresher and shut the door. I went to the shower with water, hoping I didn't do too much damage to the plumbing. Luckily, the water turned on, just a bit colder than last time. I sank to the floor of the shower, fully clothed, just letting the water run over me. It soothed and calmed me way better than any meditation Qui-Gon could teach me.

The water shut off after 15 minutes again, but I just kept sitting there. Did I overreact? Yeah, probably, I'll admit that to myself. It just seemed like such a slap in the face to everything my mom and I had sacrificed to be together. Like, family wasn't important enough to be cherished and protected. As long as you could get in to a space police cult, who cared that you didn't know your mom was the most amazing person in the world and that she loved you no matter what you did. Plus, for most of my life, I didn't know who my dad was, and it always felt like a piece of me was missing. I couldn't imagine living my whole life without ever knowing who my parents were.

A few minutes after the water shut off, there was a knock on the refresher door. "Percy," Annabeth called out, "we need to talk." I sighed and willed myself dry, but before I could get up, the door to the refresher opened. Annabeth stepped in, and the door closed again.

"Jeez, does this stupid universe not even have locks on the bathroom doors?" I asked sarcastically.

"Nope, they do. I just overrode it," Annabeth said as she placed her laptop on the tiny counter in the bathroom and sat down next to me just outside of the small shower space. She looked at me, smiled, and shook her head. "I swear, only you, Seaweed Brain, would insult the dogma of the very Order that might be our only hope of getting home in this galaxy."

"Well it's a stupid dogma," I said sullenly. Once again, I had let my mouth and temper get the better of me, but I can't say I regretted my actions. "How mad are they?"

She shrugged, "They will still help us get home just so you won't be able to question their traditions any more. Though I'm sure it would help if you apologized when you feel ready. They actually seemed more bothered by your loss of control then your accusation of brainwashing children. And, Obi-Wan in particular was concerned that you were so angry."

Oh well, so much for trying to get the guy to laugh more. "It's not like I'm angry at Obi-Wan or Qui-Gon, individually. They seem like pretty cool guys. It's just all these stupid rules and traditions of the Jedi Order. I mean separating kids from their parents before they really even get to know each other, and everyone in this galaxy is just okay with it."

She sighed, "Yes, Percy I know, and I agree with you. But, this is a different culture, a different universe. They value different things, have different priorities."

"That doesn't mean it's right," I said.

"No, but they also have a very good reason for doing it," she responded. Before I could even open my mouth to argue, she said, "Think about it, Percy. It's not so different from our situation as half-bloods. You and your mom are the exception. We are different than mortals, and because of that, it makes it difficult for us to stay with our mortal families."

"You made that choice at seven, not three," I interrupted. "Plus, you later made up with your dad. Aren't you glad you had that chance?"

"Of course, I am. But when I was younger and had more trouble defeating monsters, my family was at risk. Your own mom would have been killed by the Minotaur if Hades hadn't kidnapped her. A lot of the other year-round campers stay at camp because they don't want to endanger their family. I think the Jedi are over controlling, but by taking the children to the temple for training, they may be protecting the lives of the children's families as well as the children themselves. After the Titan War, you even used your wish to ask for half-bloods to be claimed and brought to camp for training. Is it so different?"

"We don't take babies away from their parents. We let them have a happy, normal childhood, or as normal of a childhood as a half-blood can have. Then when they are old enough, they can choose to spend most of the year with their mortal family if they want," I stated. "Giving them the right to choose makes all of the difference, Annabeth. We don't brainwash them so that they have to be heroes full time when they get older because they don't know anything else. We just give them the tools and skills, so they can live in either the mortal or godly world."

She sighed, "I agree, but I also think more half-bloods would make it to camp if we recruited them earlier, maybe a few years before their scents get strong enough to attract monsters. Is being able to have relatively normal childhoods worth risking their lives?" That did make me pause and think about all the half-bloods that died before they could reach camp. Sure, it happened a lot less since the gods granted my wish, but it still happened.

"We also don't know how Jedi powers manifest and develop," Annabeth continued. "Maybe, they develop earlier than ours, and everyone would be in danger if a Force-sensitive didn't receive proper training. I mean if a seven-year-old can lift stuff in the air, a temper tantrum could be pretty destructive. Plus, we really don't know how this dark side corruption works. But, I do think the Jedi take it to an extreme extent, probably because of that no attachment rule."

I snorted at that, "Yes, what a crime to actually be a human being and care about someone, love someone."

"Again, the Jedi take it to the extreme, but surely, you especially must see why the Jedi would have it," Annabeth stated.

"Nope, it seems more stupid than Terminus' border pat downs," I replied.

"You're not even trying to understand," she complained.

I shrugged. "I just don't get why people would want to isolate themselves so much that they didn't have a relationship with their family or have the chance to find someone to love. I mean the Hunters of Artemis are exceptions. Most of them have been hurt or betrayed by boys and are forever stuck at the age where girls think boys have cooties."

"Percy, your fatal flaw is personal loyalty. Several of your enemies have used that against you, and it nearly ended the world. Would you have to worry about this if you didn't form personal attachments? Just think about it."

I did, and I could see what she was getting at. "I think I'm starting to understand a little though that doesn't make me feel any better." I confessed.

"Well that's a good start," she said with a small smile. "The first step when something is done differently is to try and understand why. Almost everyone has a logical reason for doing something. You just have to see the world from their perspective to figure it out."

A lot was still bugging me about the Jedi council and all their rules. "This Jedi Council is sounding more and more like the gods, completely banning something just because it could possibly cause trouble later. I mean, I'm living proof that particular method never works. Do you think we can convince them to change some of these traditions? Or at least make them less extreme?" I asked. "Like there's no way this no emotions, no attachments approach works for all Force-sensitives."

She just shrugged, "I don't know Seaweed Brain, but I do know if anyone could get them to change, it would be you?"

I laughed at that. "Yeah right, your much better with words and diplomacy and persuading people."

Annabeth shook her head. "Maybe, but change requires more than words. I mean you didn't change Zoe's mind about men just by talking to her. And, when you choose to not insult every being who has the power to kill you, you aren't too bad with words yourself. After all, you did talk the gods out of killing the Ophiotaurus, and you found a way to change how the Olympians treat demigods, breaking a few millennia of tradition. There's a reason Hera sent you to replace Jason at Camp Jupiter. You've always been able to make people see things a little differently than they did before. Sometimes, I don't think you even know that you're doing it. What your persuasion tactics lack in logic, you make up for in passion. Even if half the people in the room want to kill you, you somehow make them see your point of view and change their minds." She paused to let me consider before saying, "Now enough serious talk let's get lunch."

"I've got to do this one thing first," I told her before standing up and quickly turning the water on for the shower. I used my power so that the water curved unnaturally and hit her instead of me.

"Percy!" she shrieked.

I laughed and grabbed her around the waist pulling her in the shower with me and letting the water fall normally. "I told you I would get you back for dumping water on me." Before she could protest any more, I kissed her. The Jedi could ban romantic attachments all they want, but I figured I would take my chances despite whatever danger they thought might happen because Annabeth was worth it.


	17. I Form Some Dangerous Attachments

**Thanks for all the reviews, favorites, and follows! I promise this is the last fluff/relationship building chapter for awhile, but there needed to be further development in a few relationships before they reached Coruscant.**

Chapter 17: I Form Some Dangerous Attachments

My late lunch with Annabeth was interrupted when Padmé found us in the mess hall. "I'm sorry Percy, but I was hoping I could steal Annabeth for a bit. The queen is trying to come up with a plan for when we arrive on Coruscant, and she would greatly appreciate your insight, Annabeth."

I could tell Annabeth was happy to be consulted. No doubt she was already sorting through dozens of different strategies. "Yes, of course, I would be happy to help Her Highness," Annabeth said. She gave my hand a squeeze before she got up and followed Padmé out of the room.

Well, I guess I would have to come up with some way to not die of boredom on my own now. I decided to try and find Anakin and Shmi. I checked our sleeping area, but they weren't there. Maybe they were in the cockpit? Knowing Ani, he was probably pestering the pilots about every little detail of the ship. I was on my way there when I heard Obi-Wan's voice. "Surely, Master you must see that Percy is dangerous. He has all the psychological signs of a dark side user." Now, I knew eavesdropping was bad, but I dare any of you to hear your name like that and not stop and listen.

"I agree he can be dangerous, but that seems reserved for those who harm the innocent or attack his friends. I do not think he is a threat to us or the queen." Qui-Gon stated. "In fact, I think his loyalty and abilities could greatly help the Naboo." The voices seemed to be coming from the main hold. I guess I must be just out of range from their Percy sensing Force radar since they didn't seem to know I was there yet.

"Because of his anger today, he nearly destroyed the ship," Obi-Wan countered.

"Yes, that was evidence of lack of control only," Qui-Gon responded. "Unlike someone using the dark side of the Force, he clearly had no desire to actually destroy the ship or harm us. That was just his power responding to a stimulant, an accident. With time, I believe he will learn control. As Annabeth said, he only discovered his power five years ago and has had minimal training with it. She also mentioned that his powers have been extra reactive due to certain traumatic events."

"But Master, he is practically everything the Jedi Code tells us not to be," Obi-Wan argued. "He is far too emotional, does not value knowledge nearly enough, is clearly extremely passionate, and embodies chaos in everything from his Force signature to his fighting style. Not to mention his attachments. He has only known Anakin for a few days, yet they have far too close of a relationship for a Jedi and someone outside of the Order. If you are serious about training the boy, he will have enough trouble letting go of his mother. This new brotherly attachment will not help. And Annabeth, I shudder to think how Percy would respond if anything were to happen to her. Their relationship is far too dangerous for such powerful Force-users. I know the general public is not expected to live by the standards of the Jedi Code because they do not have the responsibility of being able to wield the Force along with the risks and temptations that accompany the honor. However, Percy does have that responsibility. I don't mean to be obstinate master. I am just confused. Since he obviously violates the Jedi Code, is Percy a dark side user? Or, does he have a strong risk of falling to the dark side?"

"That is an interesting question, Padawan. To ease your doubts, you must trust in the Force and not just blindly follow the tenets of the Jedi Code. I know it is not easy to sense Percy's intentions, but what does the Force reveal about him? What do his actions show? Does he feel or behave like a dark side user?"

There was a long pause, I guess while Obi-Wan gathered his thoughts, before he replied, "Based on my observations, your report from Tatooine, and what I sense in the Force, Percy seems very brave and courageous, though that could also be because he lacks a sense of self-preservation. Often his actions seem governed by his emotions so that he reacts before he thinks with little regard about the future consequences of his actions. This makes him rash, reckless, and unpredictable. He is laid back yet is quick to anger over anything he considers unjust. He clearly has trouble with obedience and following rules. He is more intelligent then he would like you to believe, but he has no great love for learning and relies on Annabeth for general knowledge. He takes his promises very seriously and seems honorable yet is not above deceiving his enemies. He has a strong desire to defend the weak and innocent and anyone he considers a friend. He credits his comrades and plays down his own achievements which tells me he is humble despite his apparent skill and power. In fact, besides the incident where he lost control, he seems hesitant to use his power almost as if he's afraid of it."

I couldn't help it. I started getting angry, again, listening to Obi-Wan rattle off my personality. But, most of all it bugged me because I knew he had pegged me spot on. Part of me was impressed with whatever people reading skills they must teach Jedi during their brainwashing or maybe it came from this Force? "Despite his use of emotions and how his powers seem to react to them," Obi-Wan continued, "I must conclude that he does not feel like a dark side user. He is far too selfless, and I can't say I have ever heard of a humble Force-user using the dark side. However, his strong attachments are dangerous. I believe he would quickly become our enemy and maybe embrace the dark side if it gave him the chance to save someone he cared about."

"There you have it, Padawan," Qui-Gon said. "You are very perceptive and sensitive to the Force if only you take the time to listen."

"But Master, how come Percy is not more aligned with the dark side? The Order teaches we must follow the Code to avoid abusing our powers and falling to the dark side, yet Percy is basically the opposite of the Code."

"Well then Padawan, our deductive reasoning of the situation suggests that the Jedi Code is not the only one to live by in order to avoid the dark side," Qui-Gon stated.

"Master, that goes directly against the Order's teaching!" Obi-Wan exclaimed.

"Then perhaps the Order is wrong. Yes, the Code is there for a reason, and it clearly works for most Jedi but not all. Maybe, if we could figure out how Percy resists the temptation to abuse his powers, we could find another way to help our more spirited Force-users, a way to prevent them from turning to the dark side, a way to save them." At that last part, loss and regret filled Qui-Gon's voice.

"I am sorry Master. I did not mean–"

"I know Obi-Wan," Qui-Gon interrupted before Obi-Wan could elaborate. "I know. I sense that you still have much to think about and come to terms with. Perhaps, it would be best for you to meditate. You can attend the meeting with the Queen tomorrow once your thoughts are less distracted."

"Of course, Master," Obi-Wan dutifully replied.

I was so distracted by the conversation I had heard that it took me a moment too long to realize that it was over, and the Jedi were leaving the room and heading in my direction. Instinctively, I dove behind some crates, but as soon as, the Jedi took two steps out of the door they both stiffened and looked directly where I was hiding.

"Percy," Qui-Gon calmly called out. I got out from behind the crate of supplies, and I could see the surprise in his eyes and maybe a hint of embarrassment, along with a lingering sadness, probably from the end of that conversation.

Obi-Wan for once did not manage to hide his emotions, and his face was bright red. He couldn't meet my eyes. He muttered under his breath, "That bothersome Force block."

At the same time, I rolled my eyes and said, "Stupid Force sensing." It was the only way they could have found my hiding spot so quickly causing this very awkward situation.

"Percy, how much did you hear?" Qui-Gon asked.

"Umm, everything since Obi-Wan said I have the temperament of an evil dude, including the detailed personality analysis," I replied.

Obi-Wan finally met my eyes and even though he was still embarrassed, he managed to scold, "I do not know about the universe where you are from, but eavesdropping is considered to be very rude in this one."

I snorted, maybe, Obi-Wan did have some attitude after all. "And in my universe, it is also considered very rude to talk about people behind their backs, but clearly that's not the case here. Or maybe that is another social convention the Jedi are too far above to follow?"

Qui-Gon interrupted before it could escalate any farther, "Obi-Wan, perhaps you should find somewhere peaceful to meditate."

For a second, I thought Obi-Wan might refuse, but he replied with his typical, "Yes, Master." It might have been my imagination, but I swore there was more heat to those two words than normal. He brushed passed me, but before he left, he turned towards me and said softly, "I apologize for my rudeness Percy, but you would be wise to watch out for your personal attachments. They are dangerous." Then he walked out of the small hallway.

"Percy, I am very sorry you overheard that," Qui-Gon apologized. "As Jedi, we have become too reliant on sensing beings with the Force and forgot that we do not have our normal range when it comes to you and Annabeth."

I opened my mouth to tell him that did not change the fact that talking about someone like that was still rude, but Qui-Gon continued, "Yes, I'm aware that it was still unpolite. But, you are quite an enigmatic individual, and I thought it would be best if my Padawan could learn to understand you better. I hope it will help him be more tolerant to those who do not quite have his discipline, open his mind some, and hopefully, give him a different perspective than the Jedi Council. Recently, he has been idolizing them a little too much for my liking and has forgotten to think for himself."

"I'm not some textbook you can pull out to teach people lessons," I told him still angry though a part of me realized that technically that's what most mortals used Greek myths for. Heck, I was even doing it for Anakin when I told him about the old heroes.

He sighed, "I know Percy, and I apologize if it made you feel used. I just wanted you to understand it was for Obi-Wan's sake. He actually does have a bit or a rebellious streak, but lately he seems to think if he acts more mature and follows the Council's every order, it will somehow prove that he is ready for the trials to progress to a Jedi Knight and no longer be a Padawan. I had hoped that you could re-light that spark some. He could be so much more than just another stiff Council member, but perhaps your personalities are too different."

I realized something then that shocked me so much I forgot to be angry. "You care for him, don't you? Like really care for him even though you guys have that no attachment rule."

Qui-Gon sighed, "Yes, I care for him. He is my Padawan, and I would like to see him become the best man and Jedi that he can be. The close bonds I form with my Padawans are one of many criticisms the Jedi Council has towards me. However, the Master/Padawan relationship is an essential part of Jedi training. We are not heartless, emotionless droids as you seem to think we are. We form friendships and feel. But, we do not allow emotions or relationships to bias or govern our actions. Since both the Master and the Padawan are familiar with the Jedi teachings, they are aware of the dangers of attachments and both know that when the time comes they will have to let go."

I shrugged, "Well I guess that's a little better, but it still seems like a lonely, isolated life. How can you guys really protect the galaxy if you have minimal interactions with normal people?"

"That is an excellent point my young friend, and I believe it is a weakness of the Jedi Order," Qui-Gon admitted. "We have become too isolated and dependent on tradition. Unfortunately, many Jedi on the Council do not agree with me."

"The more I hear about this Council the less I'm looking forward to meeting them," I muttered. "I don't suppose I could avoid it? It would probably be better for everyone if I did."

Qui-Gon smiled at that, "If you want the Jedi's help to get home, you will need to meet with them." I made a face, so he added, "They are not so bad, but it would help if you did not lose control of your powers or your temper while meeting the Council. I am afraid most of them would respond in a similar way as my Padawan. Perhaps, you could practice meditating. It seemed to help you regain some control this morning."

"Maybe, I will. Thanks for teaching me that trick with the beach and the waves. And, I'm sorry for this morning. I said some bad things about your Order. Although I still don't agree with your rules, I should not have reacted so rudely."

"Your apology is accepted," Qui-Gon said. "Just please focus on learning control. Now, I have kept the queen waiting long enough."

Before he could leave, I asked, "Where did Obi-Wan go? I should probably give him an apology too."

"Look in the engine room," Qui-Gon replied as he headed to the Queen's throne room. "And, Percy try to keep an open mind. I think both you and Obi-Wan can learn far more than blade work from each other."

Sure enough, Obi-Wan was sitting on the floor in the engine room as still as if he had just seen Medusa's head. The only noise was the quiet hum of the engine and hyperdrive. I felt like it would be rude to disturb his meditation, so I sat down a few feet away and closed my eyes. I knew if we had any shot at repairing the comradery we formed during our lightsaber duel, I would have to hold out the olive branch first. After all I was the outsider who just came along and started insulting his way of life. Even if it seemed stupid and wrong to me, I should have been more considerate.

I might not have even bothered trying to mend our budding friendship, but Qui-Gon, who I was starting to realize was downright right rebellious for a Jedi, must have seen something in Obi-Wan. So, I figured maybe I could prevent him from becoming as stuffy and strict as this Jedi Council seemed to be. I mean I did help Jason learn to loosen up some. Plus, if there was anyone in this universe who could teach me control, it was Obi-Wan. The voice in my head that sounded like Annabeth also recognized that Obi-Wan would be a good ally to have when I did finally face this all-powerful Jedi Council. And, if I'm being honest with myself, I missed my guy friends. I mean I met other guys on Naboo, but it was hard because we didn't really have a lot in common. The ones at school were either super nerdy or overly ambitious, and all of them just seemed so innocent. Even though we had very different personalities, Obi-Wan knew what it was like to have to fight for your life.

I had just started to picture Montauk in my mind when Obi-Wan sighed and said, "Percy, why are you here? Were you planning on insulting the Jedi some more?"

I winced at that remark and opened my eyes. Obi-Wan was still sitting on the floor, but his blue eyes were open and seemed guarded as they looked right at me. "Actually, I came to say I'm sorry for all of that," I said sheepishly. "Even though I disagree with a lot of the Jedi's rules and recruitment methods, I should not have lashed out like that. It's just so different from everything I valued back in my universe, everything I fought for, but Annabeth helped me see at least why you have some of those rules."

Obi-Wan nodded his head in acceptance and flatly said, "Apology accepted," in a way that suggested the conversation was over. Man, this guy was not making it easy.

Okay, attempt number two at conversation starters. "Look, about these dangerous attachments you Jedi seem to swear off." That got his interests, so I continued. "I just wanted to let you know that even though I disagree, I get where you guys are coming from. Back home, people like me, well, we tend to have these really big flaws. Like so big that people thousands of years later tell stories about you to warn their kids about what happens when you let those particular personal traits get too big. These big flaws usually end up causing our deaths somehow, so they're called fatal flaws. Someone must have really liked the alliteration. Anyways, a wise woman once told me that my fatal flaw is personal loyalty. To save a friend I would sacrifice the world. And she's right, I would do that. Since I am aware of that now, I try to look out for it and make sure that doesn't happen. So far, I've lucked out, mostly, but my lucks never been good at holding out for long. Perhaps, you Jedi could teach me how to manage this fatal flaw. I really would rather avoid destroying the world.

"However, I hope you guys know that it works the other way too. I've also done some pretty impossible things and saved my whole world a lot just to save one friend because I cared that much." I thought of why I went on my first quest. It wasn't to stop a war between the gods that could threaten civilizations. It was to save my mom. And the next year, I went to save Grover, and then Annabeth. And, if it wasn't for Annabeth, I would never have given Luke that dagger. "I can't tell you how many times the world back home would have been destroyed if it wasn't for my dangerous attachment and complete trust in Annabeth. I mean if it wasn't for my love for Annabeth I would have been tempted to just skip out of that second war, the one against the Giants, but my dear Auntie Hera knew that and used it." I didn't quite manage to keep the bitterness out of my voice on that last part.

Obi-Wan raised his eyebrows at that, "You fought giants and have participated in two wars?"

I nodded, "Yep, it's a long story about how crazy my family is. You know your standard grandfather and then great-grandmother trying to destroy all of civilization. Maybe, I'll give you the highlights later, but if it wasn't for my personal attachments, I wouldn't be alive right now having this conversation and a lot of people would have died."

Obi-Wan nodded, "I suppose I can see a little how personal attachments could be beneficial and provide additional motivation to succeed. But, as Jedi, we are taught to love every being equally so that we can do what is best for the greater good of the galaxy. Maybe, if you would take the time to see the bigger picture, you would be less likely to act on your personal loyalties and destroy the world. I could try and help you with that."

"I guess it's worth a shot," I shrugged. "You Jedi guys seem all about balance, but frankly this no attachments seems like an extreme. Maybe we will just agree to disagree on attachments, or maybe we will start to understand each other, and together we can find that balance."

Obi-Wan gave a small smile at that, "Just warning you, I do not change my mind easily if that is your intent."

I returned his smile, "Neither do I."

"And thank you, Percy for sharing this about yourself. I know it must not be easy or necessarily safe to tell people about this fatal flaw of yours, so thank you for trusting me."

I shrugged, "Well, since you have such a detailed grasp of my personality after just a few days, I figured it wouldn't be too long before you figured it out. And, if you could really help my fatal flaw be less well fatal, then it's worth the risk."

He looked slightly embarrassed again, but then he must have thought of something amusing. "I must admit after the incident this morning, I did not think we would be able to have a civil conversation about this without…"

He trailed off at the end, clearly not sure how to politely continue, so I finished for him, "Without me losing control of my powers and blowing up toilets." Obi-Wan nodded. "Yeah, I was thinking the same thing."

"Does that happen often?"

"Not too much," I replied. "Although, ever since I first really became aware of my powers when this big bully tried to push my head in the toilet and the water exploded at her instead, I guess you can say I've become one with the pluming. So, when I do lose control, it always seems like any nearby toilets are the first to respond. But, I probably still should work more on controlling my powers. Maybe I could learn a few tricks from you Jedi since you guys seem all about control."

"I suppose I could help with that too. It would be interesting to see if Jedi techniques work for you as well. Is it common for others like you to have trouble with control?" Obi-Wan asked.

I shrugged, "I don't know. I'm kind of one of a kind among half-bloods right now. I think I'm the first kid my father has had in like 100 years or so, and it's not like there's a _Children of the Sea God_ manual. That's one book I definitely would have read. It seems like almost every year, I accidentally discover some new destruction I can cause. But, my first cousins do have similar issues. At least those on my side of the godly family do. The Romans on the other side seem to have more control for some reason."

"Wait there's two sides to your immortal family?"

I nodded, "Yeah, something about gods having split personalities based on how different civilizations viewed them. Annabeth could probably give you a better explanation. Anyways my cousins and I on the Greek side, I guess you could say we inherited a bit of a temper problem from our parents. Thalia tends to give people pretty nasty electrical shocks when she gets mad and loses control since her father is the god of the sky and lightning and stuff. And, my other cousin Nico, his father is the god of the dead and wealth, and well one time, he got so mad he literally willed someone to death."

Obi-Wan looked pretty disturbed at that, and I felt like I had to defend my cousin. "In Nico's defense, the person was a really sick psychopath that was going to brutally torture his friends, and they were hopelessly out numbered with no help in sight." This seemed to make Obi-Wan feel a little better. "So, compared to my cousins, I bet a few exploding toilets are sounding pretty harmless right about now?"

I managed to get a chuckle from him. "Yes, they are. But, I would never be foolish enough to think that anything about you is harmless, Percy. I'll admit that I doubted Qui-Gon when he first told me about these personifications of the Force that you call gods, but after these past few days and seeing what you can do without even trying, I believe it now. When you were meditating yesterday, you put off such a strong aura that I could smell the sea in the middle of a space craft."

"Oh, I thought that smell was just my imagination," I muttered.

He smiled. Boy, I was on a role. "And, I suspect you do not even know or perhaps have not even reached your full potential yet," he speculated.

I shrugged, "Honestly, I don't know, and I'm not entirely sure that I want to find out. Some of the things I've done by accident or when I was really desperate. . ." I paused here and couldn't help the shudder as I remembered those times, "Let's just say some of those powers are better left unused and unexplored."

Obi-Wan looked at me with concern, but also with a little curiosity. I was relieved though that he didn't seem afraid. "To some extent, it is wise to practice that restraint. The Jedi teach that we should not study the Force to its absolute limit. However, to truly control your power, you have to learn to master it. You must learn your own strength."

I didn't know what to think that I actually agreed on something with the Jedi. "But, maybe I can just focus on not exploding toilets first?" I asked really not wanting to accidentally cause an earthquake on some unknown planet.

Obi-Wan nodded. "I guess that is as good of a starting point as any, at least for the safety of toilets all across the galaxy."

"Oh my gods! Did you just tell a joke?" I laughed.

"I will have you know, I do have a great sense of humor," Obi-Wan huffed.

"Could have fooled me," I replied with a smile. "By the way, I'm sorry that we got off to a bad start, so let's try again." I held out my hand. "I'm Percy Jackson, and I'd like to be your friend. Or, if that is too much of a dangerous attachment for you Jedi, then I'd like to be the person who has your back in a fight if you have mine."

Obi-Wan smiled. "I'm Obi-Wan Kenobi, and I think I would like that." He extended his hand, but then hesitated. "Just, please don't sacrifice the galaxy to save me. If it is necessary to save lives, you need to learn to let go, like a Jedi would."

I nodded understanding the terms of the friendship. I might not like it, but I knew in a way, my instincts and desire to protect my friends at all cost was only the opposite extreme of the Jedi's view point. If I really wanted to beat my fatal flaw I would have to find balance. "I'll promise to do my best."

Obi-Wan shook my hand and his smile returned, "That's a good start."

Obi-Wan helped me meditate for a few hours. It was easier this time now that I knew I had to focus on the sea. As we walked towards the mess hall for dinner, I asked him, "By the way, you have got to tell me how you have managed not to go insane with Qui-Gon as your mentor for all these years. I mean that guy could give our oracle a run for her money with how vague his answers to your questions are. And our oracle literally speaks in rhyming riddles. Has he given you that 'Now is not the time to answer your question' response?"

He laughed, and I was beginning to believe there really was hope that there was still a human being beneath all that Jedi brainwashing. "Oh, believe me after so many years with Qui-Gon, I'm not entirely sure I still am sane."

* * *

The next day Annabeth and I got up early and practiced unarmed combat. She kicked my butt as usual. Then Obi-Wan and I had another friendly lightsaber duel. I was still getting used to the weapon since fighting with the equivalent of a light hose isn't easy, but it didn't feel so awkward now. Obi-Wan really focused on his defense, so we fought for what felt like forever before Qui-Gon ended it saying they needed to meet with the Queen. Annabeth had told me last night that the Queen still hadn't decided on a plan of action. Everyone was concerned with this unknown Sith Lord ally of the Trade Federation and what he might do to block aid to Naboo.

"Do you want to come too, Percy?" Annabeth asked as they headed to the Queen's thrown room. "I think today we will probably focus on the best way for the Queen to appeal to the Senate since the Jedi have a better idea of what the current senate environment is like."

"I don't get why it's so complicated. Shouldn't the Queen just be able to say they attacked us, and the Senate can send lots of starships and soldiers to help us get these Trade Federation guys off our planet?" It seemed pretty easy to me.

Obi-Wan winced, "There is so much wrong with your statement. I am not sure where to begin. Firstly, the Republic does not have a standing army. Planets mainly resolve their own conflicts with the help of the Jedi and political pressure placed by the Senate in the form of laws and taxes. In this case, the Senate could help by passing laws that halted all business with the Trade Federation until they left. Furthermore, they could approve aid from other planetary systems that do have weaponized fleets."

"It's a little weird that this Republic doesn't have an army, but okay, they should do what you just said. Still seems pretty simple." I stated not getting the problem.

Annabeth did her annoyed sigh that she does whenever I don't get something that should be obvious. "It's going to be very difficult Percy. First, we would have to get the Senate to believe us. It's not like we have much proof. Since Naboo is many lightyears away, it will turn into a he said she said since Queen Amidala will say the Trade Federation is being overly hostile, and the Trade Federation will deny it. Secondly, even if we convinced some of the senators that this actually happened, it will be even harder to convince enough of the Senate to take action in our favor. No doubt the Trade Federation has support from other systems, otherwise they wouldn't dare to try this. Remember the Senate meetings back in New Rome? You weren't even able to convince them to give you help on your quest." I frowned as I remembered how Octavian had completely taken over the room and convinced everyone not to help us. "It's going to be like that, but 100 times worse."

"But, we've got you guys," I said pointing to Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon. "Couldn't you guys be witnesses or something? You are ambassadors for the chancellor, right? Plus, everyone seems to really respect the Jedi, so the senators would believe you."

"Usually, you would be correct," Qui-Gon answered. "But, unfortunately, in this case the chancellor sent us secretly and without the approval of the Senate. Therefore, we might be able to convince some people of the validity of the queen's accusations, but her opponents will no doubt claim that the chancellor is corrupt which could hurt her cause and cast doubt on anything we may say."

"Ugh, I forgot how much I hate politics," I grumbled.

"You have experience with politics?" Obi-Wan asked, not quite able to hide his disbelief.

"Don't sound too shocked. You might hurt a guy's feelings," I put my hand to my heart pretending to be offended. "But, I'll have you know that I had an extremely successful yet very short political carrier back home. Since I'm retired though, I'll leave all the manipulating, scheming, and politics to you guys now. It gives me a headache."

As I left, Obi-Wan muttered with a laugh, "Someone really elected him?"

"I heard that Kenobi," I fired back over my shoulder with a grin.

* * *

I searched the ship for Anakin and finally found him in the engine room. He sat on the floor and fiddled with a gadget in his hands, but he looked deep in thought. "Hey, Ani, what's up?"

"Oh, hi Percy," he replied then frowned and looked up, "Umm, I guess the ceiling is up, but you know that."

I laughed, "Sorry, back home people ask what's up when they want to know what's on someone's mind. You just looked like something was bothering you, so what are you thinking about?"

He shrugged, "The future, the Jedi."

"Are you nervous?" I asked.

"Yeah, a little. What if I'm not good enough?" He replied.

"According to Qui-Gon, you've got like super Jedi powers, so you shouldn't have to worry about that," I told him. He just nodded but still looked worried, so I decided to ask him something that had been bothering me for a while. "Ani, why do you want to be a Jedi so badly? I get that it's your dream job and all, but why?"

He thought for a moment before replying, "I guess one reason is because I want to help people."

"You know you don't have to be a Jedi to help people," I told him.

He nodded. "I know that. I guess you don't get it since you've never heard of Jedi before, but I've grown up hearing stories of all these great things Jedi have done, kind of like those star heroes from your world. They've saved planets, prevented wars, stopped bad guys. I want to be a part of that, do things that really make a difference. But, that's not the only reason." He hesitated, so I gave him an encouraging nod. "Back home, a lot of the other kids would make fun of me because I could do things I shouldn't have been able to, like podracing. They used to call me a freak and other names." He made a face, but it turned into a smile. "But, now I know I'm not a freak. I have these special abilities because I'm a Force-sensitive. The Jedi are people like me. They can help me understand these special abilities and teach me how to use this power so that. . ." he hesitated again and looked a little embarrassed. "So that, I never have to feel so helpless again."

Okay, I may not be the Jedi's biggest fan at the moment, but I guess I could understand why Anakin wanted to be one so badly. I mean, he practically just described a twelve-year-old Percy Jackson who had just discovered Camp Half-Blood. He still seemed ashamed, like he had admitted that he was weak or something, so I told him, "You know everyone feels helpless at times."

He shook his head and said a little wistfully, "I bet you never have. I mean you scared Sebulba away with just a look and fought a Sith! You're strong, and when I'm around you it's like I can sense this power rolling out from you. I guess it must be because you're a Force-user."

I remembered all those summers with Gabe, feeling helpless and wishing there was a way I could fight back. "Trust me, I wasn't always strong. But, I'll tell you a secret. Power, strength, it doesn't really stop you from being helpless."

"What do you mean by that?" he asked. "If your super strong and powerful then you can do anything. You can stop the bad guys from hurting you, make people listen."

I sighed and ran my fingers through my hair as I tried to figure out how to make him understand. "No matter how powerful you are, there will always be someone, something that can defeat you. It might even be yourself, your own personal flaw. Like, Hercules, despite all his super strength, he still had an early death. Maybe, if he wasn't so bitter and selfish, his wife would never have given him the so-called love potion and accidentally killed him."

"Then what do you do? How do stop feeling helpless?"

"Well, you can train hard, make plans, and fight like hell to stay alive and protect those you care about. All that helps, but sometimes there are somethings that you just can't change, or some opponents too overwhelming, no matter how strong you are or how hard you fight it" I winced as I remembered facing Tartarus in the flesh and dropping my sword. "That doesn't mean you should give up, but in those times, it's not your power or strength that saves you. It's your determination, cleverness, a little bit of luck, and your friends." I paused before I decided to make an offer. I wanted to really make sure he knew he had a choice. "But, you do know Anakin, that you can stay with Annabeth and me on Naboo with your mom. Granted, we don't exactly have Jedi powers, but I think they might be close enough that we can teach you some. Then, if you want, you can help Annabeth and I free the slaves on Tatooine if your mom agrees. You would still be helping people and doing good, but you wouldn't have to leave your mom, or do whatever Jedi do to be completely emotionless."

"Thanks for the offer Percy, really," Anakin emphasized, but I could tell there was a really big 'but' coming. "It would be cool, but have you ever felt like you just had to do something? Like you're just meant to or destined?" I nodded. After all, my whole life had been practically governed by one prophecy after another. "Well, that's how I feel about being a Jedi. It just feels right, like that's what I'm supposed to be. But, something has been bugging me ever since Qui-Gon explained why I need to leave my mom." I couldn't help but grimace at his words. I still felt it was wrong to make Ani and Shmi stay away from each other. "I'm worried about her. It's always been just the two of us. What if something happens when I'm not there to help? Do you think you could promise to look after her and make sure nothing bad happens to her?"

I remembered another little boy years ago who asked me to protect his family member and how well that worked out. "Anakin, as much as I wish I could, that is an impossible promise to keep, especially since I might not even be on the same planet as her when I go back to Tatooine. Instead, I can promise you this. I promise to try my best to protect your mom and make sure she is happy. However, if she chooses to put herself in danger, I will respect her choice because it is her life, and I must honor her freedom to choose. I am warning you that I cannot guarantee anything. Yes, I will try my best, but sometimes my best isn't good enough. At least it wasn't always in the past."

"I understand, but just knowing she has someone out there to help her makes me feel better. Thanks Percy," Anakin said with a small smile. I just hoped he really did understand because I didn't think I could handle another little boy blaming me for the death of a loved one. We sat in a comfortable silence both deep in our thoughts before Ani asked, "Percy?"

"Hmm?"

Anakin took a deep breath, "You know those star hero stories you've been telling me?" I just nodded, so he continued. "Are there any, where the hero has to leave his mom? It's just I really like your stories, and I think it could help me be brave when I have to leave her behind."

"I'll see if I can think of one," I told him as I started to mentally run through the list of myths about kids and their parents. Theseus was a definite no. Icarus and Daedalus would be terrible, and Oedipus would probably scar the poor kid for life. Man, Greeks really had some messed-up parent-children relationships, not to mention the gods themselves. Finally, I remembered something Chiron had said when I first arrived at Camp Half-Blood all those years ago. He had asked how I would feel if someday I was called a myth to explain how little boys could get over losing their mothers. Well I guess that someday was today. If my story could help Ani, then I would tell it to him even though I really hated talking about myself. I didn't want him to start treating me differently like the kids at camp did. Maybe, I could just pretend it was someone else.

"Okay, I've got one. This story is a little different because this hero isn't in the stars." I smiled because I guess technically right now I kind of was. "But, it still has lots of gods and monsters and adventure. It just takes place a long time after those other stories I've told you, and almost everyone on my planet had forgotten about the gods."

"Wait, Percy, so those gods you told me about are real?" Anakin asked confused.

"Well, in this story they are," I tried to dodge the question. "Anyways, like all the other heroes that came before him, Peter Johnson had really bad luck. You see, he was never supposed to be born. . ."


	18. Miss Chase Goes to the Senate District

**Thanks for all the reviews, favorites, and follows! Due to time restraints, I'm going to stop PMing my thanks for all of your amazing reviews (I read on Quora that it was something fanfic authors should do. But, it might be getting annoying for some of y'all, and that's the last thing I want). Just know, I do read all of them and the feedback is greatly appreciated. Part of this chapter was inspired by Anna Camp aka Obi-quiet's amazing time travel fic "Hindsight is Not Perfect."**

Chapter 18: Miss Chase Goes to the Senate District

I thought I would be relieved when we finally got out of hyperspace. I could get off this confining ship, explore a new planet, get some more Jedi angry at me. But, as soon as I laid eyes on Coruscant from my seat in the back of the cockpit, I was filled with dread. It was the planet covered in lights from my first dream just over a week ago. "Annabeth," I whispered so the nearby pilots couldn't hear, "that's the planet from my dream, the one that the darkness spreads from."

"That's not good," she whispered back. "Though I guess it makes senses, since it is the seat of government and whatever happens on this planet will affect the rest of the galaxy. Maybe that's why the darkness spreads. But, I wonder what could be causing the darkness to begin with."

Obi-Wan must have overheard our discussion when he entered the cockpit because he added, "As far as evil goes you would have lots to choose from on Coruscant. It probably has the largest collection of corrupt politicians and heads of crime syndicates in the galaxy."

"Great, that really narrows it down," I muttered.

As we entered the atmosphere, my body involuntarily tensed up. I thought I was getting better after landing on Tatooine, but when we hit some turbulence, I jumped and closed my eyes.

Obi-Wan chuckled, "Qui-Gon was right. You hate flying even more than I do."

I managed to open one eye, and gave Obi-Wan my most intimidating, one-eye glare, "I'm fine in space. It's just flying in the air, and believe me, if my uncle threatened to blast you out of his territory, you would freak out just as much as I am. It's sort of become a subconscious reflex."

* * *

Our procession off the ship seemed overly formal, but apparently the Supreme Chancellor was waiting for us. I had let Panaka convince me to wear his extra uniform, and Annabeth wore a spare combat outfit that Padmé had loaned her. When I first saw her in the stylish maroon clothes, she was so beautiful that my mouth fell open until she pushed it closed with a smirk. Annabeth and I stood on either side of Panaka, right before the queen and her handmaidens, but after the Jedi, Ani, and Shmi.

As we waited for the entrance ramp to lower, Panaka quietly said, "Now, I know I shouldn't need to tell you this, but you both need to be on your best behavior." Even though he said both of us, he was looking directly at me. "Please, be respectful Percy, and it would probably be best if you didn't talk."

"Why are you signaling me out?" I grumbled.

"Because Annabeth doesn't inadvertently insult people when she talks to them. The last thing we need is for you to insult the leader of the Galactic Republic," he replied.

"Oh, fine, I'll be quiet," I muttered.

In front of me, I heard Obi-Wan chuckle, "So it appears that you can listen to an order, Percy."

"Oh, he's always listened pretty well," Annabeth added with a laugh, "it's whether or not he follows the order that's the trick."

"Hahaha guess it's pick on Percy day," I complained even though I was smiling too. I had missed this, the bantering, the comradery.

Outside on the landing platform, I was overwhelmed by all the sights and sounds. Now, I had heard that the whole planet of Coruscant was one big city, but I didn't really understand what that meant until now. The landing platform was floating in the air which should have made me nervous, but I my height perception was kind of skewed by the fact that at least half the skyscrapers I could see still towered over me. Now, I'm used to big cities. After all, I'm a New Yorker, born and raised, but this made New York look like a one stoplight town. There were skyscrapers above and below for as far as I could see and lanes of organized traffic speeding through the air! I'm not sure who looked more like a country bumpkin right then, me or Anakin.

I almost missed the slight bow everyone made to the two very old and distinguished men in front of us. As we moved aside for the queen, I noticed one of them staring at me, but he quickly looked away and addressed the queen. I studied him more closely. He had a rather large hooked nose and grey-white hair. While his smile seemed genuine enough, it did not reach his cold, calculating light blue eyes, and how he spoke, the way he crafted his words, reminded me way too much of Octavian for my comfort. Octavian senior introduced the other man as the Supreme Chancellor. That guy looked even more serious than Obi-Wan.

As the important people talked, I whispered to Annabeth, "Who is the guy next to the president guy?"

Annabeth rolled her eyes, "Chancellor, not president, and I don't know how you don't know who the other man is. He is the Naboo senator, Sheev Palpatine."

Oh, I should have guessed that. "He reminds me of Octavian," I hissed.

She shrugged and whispered back, "It might just be because he is a good politician. Despite his flaws, Octavian was very good at politics and from what I know so is Senator Palpatine. Not all politicians are going to be like Octavian." Our conversation must have gotten a little too loud because Panaka gave us his _you-better-stop_ look. I gave him an apologetic shrug and hoped Annabeth was right. I was probably overreacting. Just because the senator was clearly a good orator didn't mean he would be anything like Octavian.

Our group split up with the Jedi remaining with the chancellor while the rest of us followed the queen and the senator. Qui-Gon had told us back on the ship that he and Obi-Wan would need to report to the Jedi Council first and that they would send for us and Anakin when they were ready. A part of me really wished that time would never come.

When we reached the suite of rooms that served as the Naboo senator's office, Panaka lead Annabeth and I into a room filled with computers while the rest of our group freshened up. I was a little surprised when Blue the astromech droid followed us. "Annabeth, I hate to put this on you" Panaka started, "but now, that we are no longer trying to hide from the Trade Federation, do you think you could find a way to open up a secure line of communication between me and any remaining Naboo Security Forces? This room is equipped with several forms of communication. I know you've worked miracles with that portable computer of yours, and I've downloaded all the individual communication outlets of the Security Forces, even individual comlinks, into this R2 unit. Maybe you could use them to get past the Trade Federation's communication block. I am sure you know how invaluable information from the ground would be, not to mention if we could find and organize any of our forces that escaped capture."

Annabeth's eyes sparked in response to the challenge. "I'll see what I can do," she replied as she pulled out Daedalus 2.0 from her pack. In almost no time, she had the laptop hooked up to Blue and some communication computer.

"Do you have any idea how to do this?" I asked once Panaka had left with a very grateful thank you.

"I have an idea, but . . ." she shrugged her shoulders, "No, it's got to work. R2, do you have a complete copy of the message Governor Bilbo sent to the ship?" The droid responded in a series of beeps which Daedalus must have translated on the screen for Annabeth. "Good, if they used it to track us, then maybe we can use it to bust open the communications. I know they've got to be still communicating off planet and to their troops spread out on the planet. We just need to find a way to hijack their frequencies."

It took almost two hours, but eventually, Annabeth, Blue, and Daedalus somehow managed to use the Trade Federation's own method of communicating to connect with some of the Naboo Security Forces' communication devices. I didn't understand, but apparently it involved different frequencies to get messages through and converting wavelengths near the planet. Soon we were getting pings from small pockets of forces all over Naboo. "Annabeth, you're a genius!"

She gave me a smug smile, "I know." I kissed her right then and there not caring that we were in a senator's office. A loud cough eventually brought me back to reality. Panaka had returned, and the queen was with him.

I'm pretty sure my face was as red as Apollo's sun cows. "Umm, sorry about that, again, Your Highness," I managed to say as I rubbed the back of my neck. "I swear Annabeth and I don't spend all our time kissing. You just seem to have very unfortunate timing."

"Your apology is accepted," the queen said. It might have been my imagination, but I swore she had a ghost of a smile on her face. "Especially, since I assume that was a celebratory kiss, which means you have good news."

Thanks to Annabeth, Panaka was able to reach about 20 groups of resistance fighters scattered all across the planet. Most were made up of Naboo Security Forces that had escaped capture and were doing everything they could to free citizens and get supplies while giving the Trade Federation a very nasty headache.

I was curious how my Gungan friends were doing and asked Panaka to see if his men knew anything. They told us that they hadn't heard of anything, but all the Gungan cities they had found were deserted. Annabeth gave my hand a squeeze. I was grateful for her support, but it didn't add up. There was no way the Trade Federation wiped them out so easily which meant they must be hiding somewhere. They knew the waters and swamps of Naboo better than anyone.

The queen asked Annabeth to attend another meeting. I was about to leave them to go hang out with Shmi and Ani and escape all the political talk until I realized they were meeting with the Naboo senator. My instincts told me that I shouldn't let Annabeth be alone with that man. Sure, it was irrational that I didn't trust him just because he reminded me of Octavian. I knew I probably wasn't being fair to the senator, but I also knew to trust my instincts after all these years. As we walked down the corridor, I told her, "I want to be in this meeting."

She stopped, looked me in the eye, and whatever she saw made her sigh, "Percy, I'm not sure why your so jumpy around Senator Palpatine, but I'm going to be fine."

I gently grabbed her arm, before she could turn away, "Annabeth, please." I know I was probably begging, but I didn't care.

"You aren't going to let this one go, are you?" she mumbled.

Maybe, she wasn't as immune to my baby seal eyes as I thought. "Nope," I replied.

"Okay, I'll see what I can do," she said. We quickly caught back up to the queen right before we reached the room that actually served as the senator's office. "Your Highness, with your permission Percy would like to attend the meeting with the senator."

The queen whirled to face me. Even with her heavy makeup, I could see the surprise on her face. "You truly wish to join this meeting Percy? I thought you were not one for politics and even sitting still for that matter."

I was surprised that the queen seemed to know me so well since we had very little interaction together. I gave a little bow and said, "Yes, Your Highness, I promise to be on my best behavior and just stand by the wall as a guard even."

Before the queen could reply, Annabeth jumped in, "Actually," she bit her lip as she considered what she would say next, "Percy's input might be extremely useful at this point. He has held an important leadership position back on our home world and has this annoying ability to think completely out of the box. We seem to have exhausted all of our conventional options. Maybe, he can come up with an unconventional one."

The queen considered me for a moment before nodding her head, "Very well then, Percy, your council will be most appreciated. I feel we have been two steps behind from the beginning of this, always reacting right into our enemies' hands. Perhaps some unconventional thinking is exactly what we need." She turned back to the door and entered the senator's office with her head held high.

Senator Palpatine greeted Queen Amidala with a polite bow and showed her to a very large couch. Her handmaidens took up their positions behind her. Annabeth sat on a nearby chair, so I took the one next to it. Palpatine spared Annabeth and I a quick look before focusing on the queen as he gave her a report on the current state of the senate.

He started pacing as he talked and the similarity to Octavian's oration style became even more apparent – the slightly condescending tone that still managed to be sympathizing as he described the greed and corruption in the senate. He managed to convey his helplessness and distaste. Like, if only he was in charge, things would be much better. After his rant, it came as no surprise when he concluded that the senate would probably do little to help with the invasion.

When the queen brought up that Chancellor Valorum disagreed, Palpatine explained as if he was talking to a child, which I guess compared to him we kind of all were, though I figured neither Annabeth or the queen would appreciate it. "Frankly Your Highness, the chancellor has very little real power. In fact, I suspect he only called for the special session, so he can appear to be doing something. His administration has been greatly hindered by accusations of corruption although I am certain they are baseless, of course. Nevertheless, I fear the bureaucrats are in charge now."

"What options have we?" the queen calmly asked, clearly not letting the senator's tone bother her.

"Our best choice would be to push for the election of a stronger Supreme Chancellor, one who could control the bureaucrats and give us justice," Palpatine answered. "You could call for a vote of no confidence in Chancellor Valorum."

"He has been our strongest supporter," the queen quickly interjected.

Before the senator could respond, Annabeth asked, "Excuse me senator, but frankly, I do not see how a vote of no confidence would help our situation at all."

Palpatine frowned at Annabeth and said in that condescending tone, "Forgive me, but I do not have the time at the moment to explain the complexities of galactic politics to a handmaiden."

I hated how the man had just talked to Annabeth, but before I could do something stupid, the Queen coolly stated, "Annabeth Chase is the only member of my advisory council present. Her advice throughout this trying time has been invaluable, and I have come to rely on her strategic thinking."

Palpatine frowned but addressed Annabeth with more respect, "My apologies, Miss Chase, but a new, strong chancellor would be able to wipe out the rampant corruption in the senate, expose those on the Trade Federation's payroll, and return the senate to a state where it can serve the people again. This will create an environment where the Trade Federation will pay for its crimes. Not only will Naboo be liberated, but this will prevent another planet from suffering the same fate."

"That sounds very promising, indeed, Senator, but in the best-case scenario that would take what, at least a month just for the administration change?" Annabeth reasoned. "And, probably another month before Naboo sees any aid. Even with a normal election it takes time for a new leader to organize their cabinet much less flush out corruption in the whole government body. It will take even longer for an unexpected change in leadership because the chaos that follows a sudden change in power is often worse than any flaws of the current administration just because the system is not set up to run that way. Also, as Queen Amidala pointed out, Chancellor Valorum is a strong supporter for us. That might not be the case for the new chancellor. Clearly the Trade Federation has enough support in the senate to prevent the government from immediately sending aid. Perhaps, they have enough to elect a chancellor sympathetic to their cause which would make our situation ten times worse. I just don't understand why we should risk it."

She paused here and frowned, "In fact, if this terrible idea is really what's considered as the 'best choice,' then the only benefit I see in taking this course of action is that it might reveal the mysterious ally of the Trade Federation or at least give us another piece of the puzzle. Not that it would do us any good though because if this whole thing was designed to elect a new Supreme Chancellor, then the Trade Federation and it's ally would probably be the most powerful people in the galaxy."

"Can you please explain how a vote of no confidence could reveal our unknown enemy, Annabeth?" the queen politely asked.

Annabeth nodded before going into lecture mode. "As you just said in the hallway, Your Highness, ever since this started, our enemies have been two steps ahead of us. We have spent days speculating who this unknown ally could be and unsuccessfully trying to figure out the motivation behind such an aggressive attack by the Trade Federation. However, if they have backed us into a corner so that we have no choice but to elect a new chancellor then it all makes sense. The whole attack could have been orchestrated just so their ally would be elected chancellor. Though more likely the new chancellor would probably just be a puppet and not the mastermind behind everything, but the Trade Federation and their ally would be holding his strings with blackmail and bribes, so it amounts to about the same."

Queen Amidala's eyes widened as the realization sunk in. "So, this brutal attack on my people could have been nothing more than a power play," she stated angrily. "Unfortunately, though your idea does make sense, Annabeth, and it does answer our questions on the Trade Federations motive, at least better than any of our previous theories involving a better deal on plasma."

Senator Palpatine had remained quite during the exchange, but he clearly looked surprised. "I was not aware that the Trade Federation had such a powerful ally. What makes you think that they do?"

Annabeth looked at me with a raised eyebrow which was her way of asking if she should tell him about my dream. I gave a small shake of the head, and she nodded in agreement. With some unknown enemy in the shadows, the fewer people who knew I could sometimes spy in my sleep the better. Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure Palpatine's sharp eyes caught the exchange.

"Firstly, the Trade Federation's actions do not make sense," Annabeth explained. "Yes, the Senate may be bogged down by corruption, but eventually, they will act and possibly cripple the Trade Federation for good. At the very least, I'm sure several powerful and influential Core worlds, like Grizmallt, Alderaan, and Corellia, will make the Trade Federation wish that they never set foot on Naboo either with weapons or trade bans. So, why would the Trade Federation risk the backlash unless they had a powerful ally in the Senate? Someone who could make their occupation legal and hold off any retribution from Naboo's allies. Even in the current senate environment, that could only happen if there was a change in leadership.

"Secondly," Annabeth continued. Gods, I loved when she got on a roll like this, and I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy the growing surprise on the arrogant senator's face as he realized just how good Annabeth was. "Master Jinn is certain that it was a Sith warrior that attacked us on Tatooine to try and get to the queen. Based on the information Master Jinn provided, the Sith are believed to have been extinct for a millennium. However, the presence of this one clearly suggests that they are not extinct, so why would a secret order of powerful Force-users all of a sudden come out of hiding? I highly doubt their reason is to help Nute Gunray get cheaper plasma. No, there must be a bigger play, one that would allow the Sith to get revenge on the Jedi. I'm sure having a puppet chancellor would help with that. No doubt this unknown enemy is the missing link that explains why the Sith would work with the Trade Federation." I guess without my dream as evidence she couldn't come up with a way to explain that we knew our unknown enemy was this Sith Lord.

The senator looked like he was swallowing a frog before he managed to speak again. "Those are very compelling arguments, Miss Chase," this time there was no condescension in his voice. "However, I am afraid they are still circumstantial at best."

Panaka looked like he was about to spill the beans about my dream in order to convince the senator, but luckily Annabeth spoke before our guardian could. "I'm just curious Senator Palpatine, if there were to be an election right now for a new Supreme Chancellor, who do you think would win?"

He started pacing again, "Let's see, Ainlee Teem is very popular at the moment. He has favor with business factions and was against the taxation, so maybe he is the Trade Federation's secret ally or puppet politician. He already has the support of the Corporate Policy League who are militant and pro-slavery. That would be a very dangerous alliance if the CPL and Trade Federation are indeed working together." I couldn't help but clench my jaw at the mention of slavery. How in the world did a pro-slavery political group even exist?

"Who else?" Annabeth prodded.

"There is Bail Antilles from Alderaan," Palpatine continued. "He would undoubtedly have the support of the Core worlds and be a strong contender. And, . . ." he hesitated.

"And you from the Mid Rim," Annabeth finished for him.

As soon as she said those words the hair on the back of my neck stood up. Surely, our mysterious enemy couldn't be him. Naboo after all was his home too. And, although Octavian was one messed up power hungry dude, he would never have knowingly done something that would endanger New Rome. In the end, he gave up his life for it. But, maybe Palpatine was unknowing or unwilling. As Annabeth said, he could be a puppet politician that this Sith Lord was threatening with blackmail or maybe could blackmail in the future. Or, it could be this pro-slavery guy. I'm sure if he was elected the Trade Federation would be happy.

"According to the articles I've read on the HoloNet, you are also a favorite for the chancellor election next year," Annabeth concluded.

Now, Palpatine seemed impressed, "I am just a humble representative of the people. I am, of course, very fortunate and honored by the recent support I have gained just by doing my duty to the best of my ability. I must admit Miss Chase, you seem very knowledgeable on galactic politics."

Annabeth just shrugged, "My mother always said, 'Knowledge is one of the greatest weapons.' Plus, I had seven days on a spaceship to do research. Now back to the matter at hand, Your Highness, even though Senator Palpatine is a front runner to replace Chancellor Valorum, I would not recommend a vote for no confidence. I think the risk is far too great that whoever gets elected as the new chancellor could be an ally or puppet of the Trade Federation, and the transition time may do more harm to your people remaining on Naboo than the current administration. Preferably, we need a plan that will take less than two months. Even a commission with the current senate environment would not take that long."

"Is there another option?" the queen asked.

"Our only other choice would be to submit a plea to the courts," Palpatine replied.

"The courts take even longer to decide things then the senate," Queen Amidala stated, finally letting her frustration show. "Our people are dying senator. There must be something we can do to quickly stop the Trade Federation."

"To be realistic, your Highness," Palpatine sympathized, "I think we are going to have to accept Federation control for the time being."

I don't think I've ever been more frustrated with politics. Not even my first senate meeting in New Rome was this bad. Then I got an idea, and my mind started running with all the possibilities. "Wait, why can't we go back and deal with the situation ourselves? Like you said yesterday Annabeth, when the senate of New Rome failed to give Frank, Hazel, and I aid for our qu– I mean mission, we just dealt with it ourselves."

Annabeth sighed, "Percy, that is a crazy idea. The Trade Federation has an army. I know we've pulled off some miracles in the past, but we've never liberated a planet before. This is an entirely different scale then what we usually deal with."

I shrugged, "But we also have a lot more help than we normally would."

"What do you mean? Even the Naboo Security Forces leading the resistance are too scattered to actually form a strong enough force," she reasoned. "They would need a way to travel to one spot unseen by the Trade Federation. . . oh!"

I smiled as she finally started to catch on to what I was thinking. It was completely unnatural for me to think of something before she did, but since I've spent the last six months exploring the underwater cave network, I guess I should expect it just this once. "It took you long enough Wise Girl. Is this what it feels like to be you all the time?" I gave her a smirk.

She just grimaced, "Shut it, Seaweed Brain." During our exchange, I'm pretty sure we managed to shock all the other people in the room to silence. She bit her lip, "I still don't think it will be enough."

I nodded, "With the resistance forces alone, probably not. But, I think I could convince the Gungans to help. I'm sure at the moment they hate the Trade Federation more than they dislike the Naboo. They have a pretty big army."

"But Percy, you heard the reports, all of their cities are deserted. The Trade Federation probably destroyed them," she said softly.

"I really don't think so. They wouldn't have gone down so quietly. If they were wiped out, it would have been in a great battle that I'm sure one of the resistance groups would have reported. I think they are hiding in one of their sacred places." I frowned as I realized something. "Even I don't know where those are, but maybe Jar Jar does."

Panaka had been a silent observer for most of the meeting, but he seemed the first to recover from his surprise. "Percy, how do you know so much about Gungans?"

I winced, well here goes nothing. Hopefully, I wouldn't be grounded or anything. "I might have accidentally found one of their hidden cities. They promised to let me go and not attack the Naboo, if I promised not to reveal the location of their city. After that, they sort of adopted me. I didn't tell you because I knew you would pressure me for the location of their city, and I wouldn't break my promise to them. I figured it would be better to just avoid that conflict since my friendship with them wasn't hurting anyone."

"Percy," Panaka said in his extra serious voice which usually meant I was in trouble.

"Yeah, I know it was a potential security risk," I interrupted before he could start lecturing me. "But, they kept their promise, so I kept mine. Plus, it could pave the way for better Gungan-Naboo relations which could save our butts right now. So please, Panaka save the lecture until later."

I felt the senator's piercing gaze on me, so I met it with one of my own. "I don't mean to be rude, but who exactly are you?" he asked.

I was still pretty mad at him for insulting Annabeth, so I figured some impertinence was in order even though I'm sure I would hear about it from Panaka later. I gave him my best troublemaker smirk and replied, "I am Percy Jackson. I suppose I'm just a humble Naboo Security Force volunteer, but I specialize in messing up plans. So, I'm here in this meeting to come up with an idea that's so crazy, wild, and reckless that the Trade Federation and their ally couldn't have possibly predicted it."

Palpatine frowned though I couldn't tell if it was from my words or attitude. "Well, you have succeeded. This plan is suicidal."

"Actually, with the Gungan army, we might have a chance," Annabeth stated.

"I still do not wish for all-out war, if it can be avoided," the queen stated.

"I don't think it will come to an all-out war," Annabeth predicted. "I think it will probably come down to one, big battle." I looked into her grey eyes and could almost see her mind whirling behind them with ideas and potential battle strategies. She gave me a smile, "After all, it's not like the Trade Federation is a hydra." I knew then what she was thinking. We would go for the Trade Federation's head, its leaders, because unlike the hydra, the Trade Federation would not immediately grow another one, and their whole siege on Naboo would be crippled. I realized then that something during this meeting made Annabeth distrust the senator too because she used Greek mythology code.

Palpatine took the opportunity to interject, "I must protest this madness, Your Highness. No doubt the Trade Federation army will wipe out any resistance you could muster even if these Gungans are alive and do agree to help. You will be forced to sign the treaty. Surely, you do not trust these children and their suicidal plan with your life and more importantly the lives of our people? I hate to accuse our own citizens, but maybe, they are spies for the Trade Federation. This could all be a trick to get you back on the planet."

I stiffened at his accusations. I hated getting accused of being a traitor though unfortunately this wasn't the first time. It was just so opposite of who I was, but if I managed to control my urge to smack Octavian after he said it in a senate meeting then I wouldn't lose control for this arrogant politician either. I forced my tensed shoulders to relax and stood up to face the senator. "The Naboo gave Annabeth and I a home after we lost everything." Despite my efforts, my voice shook slightly with emotion at even the idea of betraying the Naboo. "We have fought in two wars on our home world, but on Naboo we have only found peace and happiness. Finally, a paradise where we can heal and recover and live without fear. So, why in Hades would we want to help anyone hurt our new home and family?" I asked.

The senator looked taken a back. But, the queen looked contemplative. She studied both Annabeth and I very closely. "You ask me to place much trust in you, but after Percy's heartfelt display of loyalty to our people and our home, I do believe you have the best interest of the Naboo at heart. But, please Annabeth, tell me you are confident we can succeed in this course of action?"

Annabeth sighed, "I don't know if confident is the word that I would use, but I do think we could make this plan work. It's better than doing nothing and waiting for the senate to act."

"Is there a way we can get a couple of Jedi to come as well?" I asked. "I mean even though they are a little annoying, and I disagree with them on practically everything, those guys are pretty handy in a fight."

The queen finally smiled, "That is something I think I can arrange. In the special session today, I will plead my case. If democracy fails and the senate requests a commission be sent to Naboo for proof, I will agree but make the very reasonable demand that the commission be comprised of Jedi. Hopefully, the Trade Federation's allies in the Senate won't be able to delay the commission being sent."

"Well, if we are guaranteed Jedi, then that will definitely increase our odds of success," Annabeth stated. "I was more than a little concerned about the Sith appearing again."

The Queen stood up. "Very well then, it is decided. If we do not get support for a speedy resolution from the Senate, we will immediately leave for Naboo."

Our party left the senator's office, but at the other end of the hallway, I spotted Obi-Wan and Anakin waiting for us. I groaned couldn't we at least have a break between annoying meetings.

 **Author's Note: I know it might seem like Annabeth pieced together everything pretty quickly, but unlike in the movie, the they know that the Trade Federation is probably working with or for a Sith Lord because of Percy's dream. Annabeth's really good at strategy since her mom is a goddess of strategy and would think much more rationally than a newly elected fourteen-year-old queen desperate to do something to help her people. I assume that Annabeth would know in order to understand your opponent and predict their moves you have to know their motivation, so she would be focused on trying to figure out what is motivating the Trade Federation and the Sith. As she pointed out, a power play really is the only motive that makes sense. But, in future chapters Palpatine will definitely be more careful and have lots of curve balls to throw at her. Please let me know what you guys think.**


	19. I Really Hate Councils

**As always, thanks for all the reviews, favorites, and follows. Sorry for the long delay, but I did write an extra long chapter. In the future, I'll try to keep them closer to 5,000 words. This chapter was extremely difficult, and I had to write four versions before I was finally happy enough with it.**

Chapter 19: I Really Hate Councils

Obi-Wan took us to the Jedi Temple in some sort of air car. Annabeth sat up front and filled him in on everything that had happened in the meeting with the senator. That left Anakin and me in the back seat. I couldn't help but notice how nervous the poor kid got the closer we were to our destination. "Hey, Ani you got this." It must be pretty nerve wracking, thinking that your whole life depended on this one test. On top of everything, I'm sure he was probably worried that he may never see his mom again. Ani just nodded.

Even though personally I would have been thrilled if Anakin did not become a Jedi, I knew it would crush the kid, so I decided I would do everything I could to help him. Maybe, he would become an amazing Jedi and change some of their stupid traditions. Right now, I knew they would not be a fan of how nervous he was or that he was missing his mom since that was evidence of those dangerous attachments. "You know there's this secret trick you can do whenever you're nervous and don't know what to do, and it instantly makes you feel better. But, not just anyone can do this trick. You're really lucky Anakin because you can and so could the hero from those last few stories I told you."

"You mean Peter Johnson?" Ani asked. I quickly glanced at Annabeth, but she seemed too absorbed in her conversation with Obi-Wan to pick up on the name.

I nodded, "You see only people with really great, amazing moms can use this trick. And, you have a really great mom." As I said that, he got even sadder. Great going Jackson. "The trick is you have to think what would your mom want you to do. Like in the story, Peter wanted to sacrifice himself and the world to save his mom, but he realized that was not what his mom would want. She would never have forgiven him if he had saved her instead of saving the world. So, instead of doing what he wanted to do, he did what he knew his mom would want him to do and saved the world, honoring the choice he knew his mom would make if she had been able to because he loved her that much. Sometimes the greatest way to show your love for someone is to honor their choices and sacrifice, even if that means you might not see them again."

Even as I said the words, I wondered if I was a hypocrite. Sure, I used that particular reasoning when I escaped from the Underworld with Zeus' Master Bolt and also when I chose to ask Nereus about the bane of Olympus instead of how to save Annabeth. It had helped me avoid my fatal flaw in the past, but I also knew I wouldn't always be able to do it. After all, I wasn't able to let go of Annabeth when we were hanging at the edge of the Pit even though she had asked me to. Sure, it had turned out okay, or as well as a trip to Tartarus could, but the next time I might not be so lucky. I shook off the depressing thoughts and focused back on making Anakin feel better. "So, Ani what would your mom want you to do right now?"

The boy sniffed and wiped his nose on the back of his hand, but he put his shoulders back and looked me straight in the eyes. "She would want me to be brave and not worry about her. Instead of thinking about how much I miss her, she would want me to focus on this test and do my best. She would want me to be a Jedi, so I could make this galaxy better." With each sentence, Anakin seemed to shed his sadness and nerves and grew more determined.

I smiled, "There you go! I find it helps me not to miss my mom as much because when I use the trick I know she would be proud of me no matter how far away she is. Feeling better?"

He nodded, "Thanks Percy!"

"No problem, and there's one other thing. Whatever you do, don't lie to the Jedi," I advised. "Apparently, with the Force they can tell if your lying, even a little lie. Although that particular ability is more difficult with Annabeth and me, Qui-Gon still knew when we tried to tell a lie, and he wasn't too happy about it."

"I understand," he said.

"Other than that, I guess just don't lose your temper and blow up the toilets."

Anakin laughed at that, and I was glad I'd got him to relax some. "Blow up toilets? Really?"

"Yeah, at least that's the advice Qui-Gon gave me, more or less, for when I meet the Jedi Council," I replied with a wink, and we shared a smile.

"Oh, my gods!" Annabeth exclaimed. I looked up and saw that we were heading towards a mountain of a building with a huge pyramid like base and five towers on the top. She immediately started gushing about the architecture, talking about ziggurats and spires. It was a rather imposing building with straight and sharp edges though I preferred the more graceful beauty of the palaces and temples on Olympus.

Obi-Wan parked his air car and lead the way inside. We entered a simple futuristic looking hallway first, but the next hallway we went through was enormous, like throne room of Olympus enormous, with towering columns and high arches. Annabeth just stopped and stared for a moment, too stunned for words. I pinched her gently on the arm to bring her back from architecture land. "Wow," she managed to say, "Percy, this is incredible!"

Obi-Wan waited for us to catch up since Anakin was also staring at the enormous hall with his mouth hanging open. As we continued walking, Obi-Wan told us how the Temple was built around and inside of an actual mountain, long ago. The Jedi High Council met in one of the towers, so Obi-Wan guided us to an elevator. I desperately hoped that this one had better music then the one in the Empire State Building. I had always blamed Apollo for that. Not surprisingly, we were surrounded by silence once the lift doors closed. Jedi probably had some crazy rule about no music because it might corrupt the youth or something.

Now that she was no longer distracted by architecture, Annabeth focused her intense, grey eyes on Obi-Wan. "So, what can we expect from the Jedi Council?"

"Well, many are rather skeptical after Qui-Gon revealed your heritage and how you got here," Obi-Wan replied. "And, I believe all of them are curious. After all, it has been a very long time since we have found new Force-users who wield the Force so differently from us."

The lift came to a smooth stop and the doors opened to a waiting room of sorts. Obi-Wan took a deep breath and looked at me, "Percy, as your friend, I would like to ask you to try and be respectful. I know you disagree with a lot of the Jedi traditions, but please try not to lose your temper."

I sighed and ran my hands through my hair. I really wanted to tell off these guys for breaking up families, brainwashing kids that emotions and caring about people were bad, and a lot more. But, I doubt they would help Annabeth and me if I just started yelling at them right off the bat, and I really would like to be able to go home. Plus, Obi-Wan had asked nicely, so for a friend, I would try. I nodded, "I'll do my best. In fact, if Annabeth doesn't mind doing most of the talking, I'll just try to stay quiet. But, I'm warning you there's only so much condescension and judgement I can take from people just sitting in chairs making decisions that drastically affect my life. I don't have unlimited patience like you and Qui-Gon."

Obi-Wan nodded, then turned to Anakin, "Do you mind waiting here until the Council is ready for you?"

Anakin agreed though he looked worried at having to wait. Annabeth smiled at him, "Hey, Ani, this is probably part of the test. After all, as Percy said Jedi have unlimited patience, so show them that you at least have more patience than Percy. That shouldn't be too hard."

Anakin grinned with renewed determination, "Yeah, your probably right."

At the same time, I said "Hey," at her insult to my patience. She gave me a smirk, but then she grabbed my hand and walked towards the large sliding metal doors where I figured the Jedi Council waited. Obi-Wan frowned at our joined hands but wisely decided not to comment. I realized then that I wasn't the only one rebelling against the Jedi's traditions and how they thought Force-users had to live their lives. Annabeth was just more subtle about it but that didn't make the statement any less powerful. By holding my hand, she was telling the Council that we dared to care about each other, we dared to love. We stepped through that door still holding hands as we faced the Jedi Council the same way we faced everything else the Fates, the Force, or whatever it was could throw at us. Because no matter what, we were together.

* * *

The Jedi Council chamber was a circular room with windows for walls that gave a pretty impressive view of the endless city below us. The council members sat in a ring of chairs around the room. The style of the chairs differed, but all of them were simple and bare which was drastically different from the elaborate thrones of the Olympian Council. The members of the Council seemed as different from one another as their seats. They were a mix group of humans and other species as well as males and females. Although I'm sure Annabeth would point out that there were far fewer females on the Council than males. I started counting exactly how many council members there were and groaned when I realized there were twelve. Why was it always twelve?

Obi-Wan joined Qui-Gon, who was waiting in the center of the room, and gave the Council a respectful head-bow. Annabeth and I just followed his lead. Then Qui-Gon spoke, "Masters of the Jedi Council, may I introduce Annabeth Chase and Percy Jackson."

"Interesting, indeed," a tiny green dude said. He looked pretty old with lots of wrinkles, tuffs of white hair, and really long pointed ears. "Until you entered this room, sense you I could not. Please, your story, tell us." I had to mentally rearrange the words so that they made sense. Trying to figure out what this guy said, felt like trying to read English with my dyslexia. Hopefully, he wouldn't talk too much otherwise I would get a huge headache.

Annabeth gave my hand a final squeeze before she began to talk. She told them all about the gods and both camps along with a brief summary of events for the past five years. I guess she wanted to let them know what we had accomplished and reassure them that we were the good guys so to speak. But, she didn't tell them as much as we had told Panaka and left out the more personal stuff, mainly Tartarus. The Jedi only interrupted to ask for more details at certain parts or for her to clarify something.

I did participate in a few demos. Annabeth asked me to form a water sphere from the moisture in the air again. I only managed a little sphere, but the Council still seemed impressed. They also were skeptical of Riptide, so Obi-Wan turned on his lightsaber at full power while I brought out my blade. We took a few swings at each other at half our normal speed. Once again, there was a hiss as Riptide made contact with the lightsaber. But, my trusty blade withstood the heat, and no steam appeared yet.

When Annabeth had finally finished, silence filled the room. Then a Jedi that looked almost human except that he had a really long cone shaped head – maybe, he just had a really big brain – said, "Surely, these gods cannot exist. Pure beings of the Force? That is bordering on heretical."

"Regardless of whether or not you believe us about our parents, we were hoping you could help return us to our own universe," Annabeth said, no doubt trying to steer the conversation away from outright questioning their precious beliefs. "You believe us about that don't you since we do not have any midi-chlorians?"

"Believe you, we do. Sense the truth, I can." I was starting to suspect that the little green guy must be the leader since he seemed to speak for the whole Council at times. It was hard to tell since all the chairs were equally plain, and unlike the Olympian council where Zeus's and Hera's thrones were clearly at the head of the U shape, the Jedi sat in a perfect circle.

"However, as of now, we are not aware of a way to travel in between dimensions," a bald, human man with a serious voice and dark skin said from his seat next to the tiny leader. "It is possible though that the information could be found in our extensive archives. Perhaps some of our librarians could begin researching the topic."

I could tell by Annabeth's frown that she was hoping for a more proactive answer. "So, we should just return to Naboo and wait for your librarians to find something? There isn't anything more we can do?" she asked.

"Perhaps, if the Council agrees, you and Percy could stay at the Temple for some time," Qui-Gon hesitantly suggested. "You could help direct the research and learn more about the Force and Jedi while we could learn more about you and this alternate dimension. I think that with the proper training, you could use the Force as Jedi do. Both parties would benefit with the sharing of knowledge."

The Council's response was immediate. The way too serious, bald dude said, "They are too old to learn the ways of the Jedi, and I think it would be unwise to let their different upbringing and philosophies corrupt our teachings."

A voice from behind me said, "The girl is far too proud." Annabeth bite her lip at the mention of her fatal flaw. I had no idea how the Jedi picked up on it so fast.

"The boy is too emotional, and his Force presence is as chaotic as a storm," the cone-headed dude said. "Furthermore, their relationship is far too dangerous. I also find it suspicious that the dark side clouds our vision yet not the boy's. If the Sith truly have returned, perhaps this is an elaborate plan to sew confusion among us. After all, we can barely sense anything regarding these children's intentions behind their Force blocks."

I snorted at that comment. Before, I could end my silence, Qui-Gon came to our defense, "I believe that is highly unlikely, Master Mundi. It would have been far more beneficial to let us remain in the dark regarding any return of the Sith Order, yet Percy warned us about not only one but two Sith Lords from his vision. Furthermore, both Percy and Annabeth were the ones that helped me fight the Sith when he attacked. I had told Percy to leave me and return to the ship, but thankfully, he did not listen. Otherwise, I would not be here right now. He even managed to wound this Darth Maul, though I will admit he used unconventional methods."

"He used the dark side?" a human woman asked with concern.

"No, he did not," Qui-Gon replied with certainty. "Although he did resort to trickery, and it helped that the Sith could read his intentions no better than we can. However, in a fight, he does seem to draw strength from his emotions, but it is balanced by the desire to protect and defend as opposed to a desire to harm his opponent."

"A dangerous balance that is," the green guy commented. I gritted my teeth. What a crime, that my anger actually gave me an adrenaline boost so that I could save my friends from impossible situations, like taking down Polyphemus as a thirteen-year-old or even a Titan for that matter. Annabeth squeezed my hand as a reminder to stay calm and just bear with it. The green guy cocked his head and studied us carefully. "Teach them some already you have, Qui-Gon?"

"The last time I checked, the Jedi do not have a monopoly on meditation," Qui-Gon replied. My respect for Qui-Gon just doubled with that sarcastic remark he just gave his bosses.

"You have remained rather quiet, Jackson," the serious Mr. Baldy said. "Do you usually let your companions do all of the talking?"

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Obi-Wan wince. He knew what was coming. I was rather proud that I had managed to make it this long. I closed my eyes for a second and imagined Montauk again. The waves were over 50 feet high, so I quickly willed them to calm. I was starting to like mentally using my powers like this. It was a safe way to release them. I knew this man was trying to goad me and see if he could make me lose control, but I refused to give him that satisfaction. I smirked at him. "I'm sorry, but my mother, who I'm dangerously attached to, taught me that if I had nothing nice to say then I should say nothing at all. But, maybe that lesson in manners is something only parents can teach their children because you guys clearly never learned it. Since you spent the last few minutes listing everything you dislike about Annabeth and me, perhaps I should return the favor."

"Dislike us, do you?" the green guy asked. He didn't seem offended, just curious.

I shrugged. "As individual people, I'm not sure yet. All I know is that you guys are way too judgey, and I do have a strong dislike for councils that just like to sit there and control everyone's life. But, I definitely do not like a lot of things about your Order.

"I mean you guys go around this galaxy breaking up families which is wrong on so many levels. Sure, I know it's legal, and the parents give their permission maybe with some bribes or threats from the government. But, the kids never have a real choice until after you brainwash them that they shouldn't react to their emotions and that caring for their families is selfish and will turn them evil. I don't know, maybe this whole release emotions into the Force thing actually works, or maybe, it just causes some kids to repress their emotions which is really unnatural and not good. No wonder some of them explode and turn to this dark side. You guys say you are all about balance, but that just seems like an extreme.

"Plus, in my experience my dangerous attachments have saved me way more than they have hurt me. In fact, our parents, the Olympian gods, kind of have this no attachment policy with their kids, and that almost cost us the war against the Titans. So many half-bloods felt ignored by their godly parent that they became angry and bitter and joined Kronos to get revenge.

"Finally, you guys say you're the champions of peace and justice for the people, but how can you really save and protect people if you guys don't understand them since you live your lives so isolated up here? Without attachments, how can you relate to a son's love for his mother? Or a person's need to protect his loved ones? In fact, if it's for the greater good, maybe you wouldn't even try to help that person protect his loved ones. After all, you guys have turned a blind eye to slavery, one of the worst injustices for a sentient being. It's happening right in your backyard, but you do nothing just because if might disturb the peace."

When I finished the rant, you could hear a pin drop. All the Jedi looked stunned. I figured they probably never had someone talk to them like that in this room. I was just relieved I hadn't blown up any toilets during my rant. I wanted to prove to these guys that I wasn't some ticking time bomb that would explode if I was a human being and got angry. Finally, the green leader said, "Darkness, I sense in you. Faced it you have. Pursue it, you did not. What stopped you, hmm? Resist the temptation, most could not."

I was a little surprised at the change in topic. "Umm, I thought you guys couldn't really do that mind reading thing with me."

"Older am I, and more patient," he replied in his backwards speech. "Others sense the storm, look for the eye, I do. Also, quieted your mind some you did."

"Umm," I wasn't really sure how to respond since I didn't know what exactly he was talking about. "I mean both Kronos and Gaea tried to recruit me offering the usual power, fame, fortune, and protection for my mom, but I knew it was just a trick to use me as a pawn. Plus, I don't think destroying the world and rebuilding it is a good way to fix things. Sure, there's a lot of bad in our world, and the gods are far from perfect and can do some really messed up things. But, that doesn't mean we should destroy the good as well. Besides, I believe things can always change for the better even if that means I have to deal with the gods being jerks."

The green guy grunted sounding amused, "That is good to hear. But something else, I sensed. Used your power, you did. Too far, it went."

How could he possibly have known about that? "Invasion of privacy much?" I felt my anger building up again. This time I didn't bother to stop it since the last time it clearly helped the green guy read my mind or feelings or whatever. Who did these Jedi think they were that they could just prod into people's thoughts and feelings?

Obi-Wan sighed, "Percy, Master Yoda is just trying to understand you. Jedi have spent years carefully observing each other for traces of darkness so that we can help each other before one of us falls to the temptation of the dark side. It is second nature for us to search for that darkness in a fellow Force-user. Surely after you faced the Sith, you understand the danger dark side users possess. The Council just wants to make sure you are not at risk of falling to the dark side. Plus, if you really resisted it, like Yoda said that is rather impressive."

I sighed and ran my fingers through my hair. I really didn't want to open up to these arrogant, judgey strangers about my darkest secret. After all, only Jason and Annabeth knew the full truth. Annabeth gave my hand another squeeze for support. I looked at my amazing girlfriend. Maybe, some good could come out of this since it would only strengthen my previous argument about attachments. "Well, during the second war, Annabeth and I accidentally fell into Tartarus. It's sort of the worst possible place in our world. It's where the evilest beings are thrown for punishment and where monsters are reborn after we kill them. The very air you breathe is acid, and you have to drink from a river of fire just to survive. I don't know if you guys have a hell in this universe, but that's where we were."

"That sounds like Chaos where the spirits of deceased Siths are believed to go," Qui-Gon provided.

I was a little surprised by the name since Chaos was sort of at the edge of Tartarus. I wondered if Chaos spanned across universes. "Yeah, well Annabeth and I are going to stay very far away from that place. One pit of eternal damnation is enough to last a life time. Anyways, we needed the goddess of misery and poisons to turn us into ghosts, sort of, so we could sneak around monsters and get out of Tartarus. She did her part, but then she betrayed us and tried to kill us as a sacrifice to the primordial deity of the night. We couldn't really fight back in our new ghost forms, and she was slowly suffocating us with toxic fumes as she surrounded us with hundreds of poisons. In a desperate attempt, I tried to control the poison like I would with the water in a stream. I felt something inside me crack, and I was able to push the poison back towards the goddess. I was angry and felt more powerful than I've ever felt before. The goddess started choking on her own poisonous fumes, and when she started crying I forced the tears to fill up her throat. I wanted her to drown in her own poison and misery. Then, Annabeth begged me to stop. I didn't want to, but the realization that the woman I loved was afraid of me snapped me out of it and made my anger fade. I let the goddess go after that. So, you see in the end it was my love for Annabeth, what you guys would call my dangerous attachment, that saved me from turning to this dark side if that's what it was. I just don't see how true love could be a bad thing. In my experience, love brings out the best in people."

The Jedi seemed to consider my words for a moment. Then, Master Yoda said, "A bad thing, love is not. The fear to lose love is a path to the dark side. To the edge, it brought you."

Before I could make enough sense of the green guy's statement to argue back, Mr. Baldy asked, "Have you used this power over other fluids again? Can you control blood?"

I grimaced at the implication and cold accusation in his voice and shook my head, "No, I understand now that somethings aren't meant to be controlled." I hesitated before adding, "I'm not even entirely sure if I could do it again outside of Tartarus since that place has its own rules. And, I don't really plan on trying to find out."

"Nevertheless, this boy is dangerous," cone-head said. "We do not even know the full capabilities of his powers. Perhaps we should keep him monitored and under surveillance to ensure he does not harm others."

"Wait, what? You guys want to spy on me?" I asked shocked. All the Jedi were silent. I had a feeling they were having some sort of mental discussion with each other. "At least the last time a council of powerful beings made a decision about me, they had the courage to own up to it and not hide behind some secret mind reading conversation." I really hated councils. They always tried to control people.

"I would not recommend trying to do that," Annabeth warned. "You have no jurisdiction over us. We are not Jedi, and that would be a serious breach in privacy under the laws of the Republic."

"It is well within the powers granted to us under the Republic," Mr. Baldy replied. "We could even detain you, as dangerous, rogue Force-user for a period of time. I'm sure the Senate would not object, particularly since exiling dangerous Force-users in the past never seems to work well in the end."

Annabeth just shrugged, but I could tell she did not like Mr. Baldy trying to intimidate us with his threat to have us arrested. "I disagree," she said in what I considered her dangerous voice. "After all, we don't have any midi-chlorians. I think that's a strong enough argument to question your jurisdiction over us since you seem to define Force-sensitives by the number of midi-chlorians they have, at least in the eyes of the government. Many would see this as the Jedi overstepping their boundaries since Percy and I have not broken any laws. Plus, I doubt you would want the Republic to find out you might be wrong about midi-chlorians altogether, especially since you use that midi-chlorian count to justify separating young ones from their families. Can the Jedi Order really afford such negative attention in the current political atmosphere? Or, I suppose you could just let the whole galaxy know that other universes exist beyond this one and deal with the chaotic fallout of such a revelation." Both Annabeth and Mr. Baldy calmly stared at each other as if trying to size the other one up for some sort of battle of the wits.

"It will not come to that," Qui-Gon said a little gruffly trying to break the tension between the two. "You and Percy have done nothing wrong and have survived far more than most Jedi despite your young age. It would be a crime for the Jedi to hold you for what they fear you can do and an invasion of privacy to keep you under surveillance, especially since you have done nothing but help others since you arrived in this universe."

"Speak the truth, Qui-Gon does," Master Yoda stated.

"The boy is still dangerous if left free," cone-head said. "Much less if anything happened to the girl–"

I cut him off there. "Well then, you better make sure nothing happens to the girl, or I might become a crazy, evil boy who wants to take over the galaxy." Yes, part of me was being sarcastic, but it was also a threat. I didn't like how Mr. Baldy had looked at Annabeth, like – well like how Annabeth looked at everyone else – like, he was thinking of the best way to take down my girlfriend.

Before anyone else could speak, Obi-Wan said in a calming tone, "Yes, Master Mundi, Percy may be dangerous, but he is not a threat to us or the people we protect."

"Trust him you do, Padawan Kenobi?" Master Yoda asked.

Obi-Wan paused for a moment considering. He looked at me, and I cocked an eyebrow. I wondered what he would say just as much as the Council. "Yes, I do trust him," he concluded.

I smiled for real for the first time since entering the council chamber. It meant a lot to me that Obi-Wan trusted me enough to stick up for me in front of the Council, especially after hearing about everything I had done, the good and the bad.

Our meeting ended shortly after that. The Council promised to devote as many librarians as they could to finding a way home for us. Amazingly, it had become a top priority. I'm sure it had nothing to do about Annabeth's threat to expose our lack of midi-chlorians or some of my more dangerous abilities. Qui-Gon lead us out of the chamber and told Anakin that the Council was ready to see him now. The boy gave him a determined nod and entered the room before I could warn him about how bad the Council was or try to convince him one more time to not be a Jedi.

In the elevator, Qui-Gon sighed in frustration, "That went well."

"Apparently, it could have gone a lot worse," Obi-Wan said with a small smile. "I think I'm starting to understand some of your frustration with the Council, Master. I understand not training them in the Jedi ways, but I cannot believe that some of them wanted to detain Percy. That is against the very justice we strive to protect. I am very sorry that was your experience with the Council, Percy and Annabeth."

I shrugged, "It's okay. That actually wasn't the worse council meeting I've been to. One time when I was fourteen, the Olympian Council, my own family, had a vote on whether or not they should kill me just because I might make a decision that could destroy civilization when I turned sixteen."

"I think I am glad your family is in another universe," Obi-Wan stated. Both Annabeth and I managed to laugh. It felt good after the stressful meetings.

* * *

Qui-Gon offered to give us a tour of the temple, but Annabeth politely turned him down saying we had to get back to the senator's office as soon as possible.

"Umm, who are you and what have you done with my girlfriend?" I asked as we headed back to the landing pad with the air cars. "Because I thought Hades would tap dance before you passed on the chance to admire the architecture of a cool building like this one."

She smiled at the comparison and looked wistfully at the grand arches before shaking her head, "I would love to stay and see more of this amazing temple, but unfortunately, I don't think we can afford to." She bit her lip before adding, "I think I might have made a mistake."

"Okay, now I know something is wrong," Annabeth never admits to making mistakes. "Do you feel okay?" I pressed the back of my hand against her forehead just in case it was some fever induced dementia though usually when demigods aren't acting themselves it's something far more serious.

She rolled her eyes, "I'm fine Percy, and I guess it wasn't really a mistake. There's no way I could have known before, and once I figured it out, it was too late to really do anything." I gave her a confused look. "But, the point is we need to do everything we can to speed up our departure back to Naboo. I'm afraid there's a good chance that the Trade Federation will find out about our plan to ally with the Gungans. If they manage to find them before we get there, well it won't be good for any of us, particularly the Gungans."

"That would be bad, but how could they have found out about it so soon?" I mean I had just come up with that plan like two hours ago.

Annabeth pressed her lips together and eyed a nearby droid and a group of Jedi whispering, their voices carrying in the near silent hall. "Not here, the acoustics are too good," she muttered.

"There's no reason to be so worried," Obi-Wan tried to reassure her. "You can trust the Jedi, and there are frequent checks for espionage technology throughout the temple."

Annabeth shook her head, "No, I'll tell you later. If things in the Senate go as planned, I suspect you guys will be heading back to Naboo with us. Besides, it's just a suspicion though it would be disastrous if the rumor spreads regardless of whether I'm right or not."

I stopped suddenly when we reached the modern hallway. "What about Anakin? If he's accepted into Jedi training, we might not see him again. We won't be able to say bye. And, if he isn't he'll be crushed, he shouldn't have to face that alone."

Annabeth looked conflicted, but then Qui-Gon said in that confident, calm voice of his, "He will not be alone, and I am sure the Council will realize that the boy needs to be trained as a Jedi despite his age." Obi-Wan's frown said a different story, but he was too polite to interrupt. "Also, I believe you will see him again. Through the Force, I feel that something is coming. A turning point that will affect the Jedi, Sith, and the whole galaxy. As the Chosen One, Anakin will be at the center of this, but I am certain you two will also have a role to play due to your mysterious appearance and your impressive ability to attract trouble."

That wasn't particularly comforting. Sure, I would like to see the kid in the future, but I would rather avoid whatever big galaxy changing crisis Qui-Gon was talking about. "Perhaps, a clean break would be best for this anyways," Qui-Gon continued. "Anakin will have a fresh start. If there is anything you wish to tell him now, I promise to relay your messages after the Council's verdict."

"Please tell him that we are sorry we couldn't wait, and if it was anything short of saving a planet, we would be there for him," Annabeth said. "Also, remind him with a brain like his, he needs to create more than he destroys." Qui-Gon nodded and turned to me.

I thought for a moment before responding, "Tell him, I'll keep my promise, but he'd better train hard, focus on his classes, and make some friends. No one can do it alone, even if he is the Chosen One." I winced, "On second thought leave out the Chosen One part. That sounds pretty stuck-up. For being so humble, shouldn't Jedi know better than calling the person that is supposed to save them something so pompous? It might go to a guy's head. Tell him. . ." I paused trying to come up with a way to tell Anakin everything he might need while adjusting to the Jedi Order and whatever Jedi powers he had. "Tell him to remember the stories."

"I will pass on your words to him," Qui-Gon promised.

When we reached the air car, Obi-Wan hoped into the driver's seat, but Qui-Gon stayed behind. The old Jedi smiled at us, "I am thankful the Force allowed our paths to cross. Percy, Annabeth, it has been a rather enlightening experience to say the least. May the Force be with you." He gave us one of those little bows the Jedi seemed to give everyone.

"Thanks, Qui-Gon for everything," I said. "I have a feeling if any other Jedi had found us, things would have gone very differently and much worse for Annabeth and me. So, thanks for believing us. I would tell you goodbye, but I don't think there's really a point if I'm going to see you again in a few hours."

"Oh, you are that certain we will return to Naboo with you?" he asked amused.

I shrugged, "After all these years, I've learned never bet against Annabeth."

* * *

Despite our best efforts, it was night when we were finally able to leave Coruscant. We probably would have been stuck for at least another day if it wasn't for Annabeth's paranoia. She was afraid someone might have sabotaged our ship and asked Shmi to check it over as soon as we got back to the office. Shmi actually did find something wrong with one of the engines. The pilots claimed it must have been an honest mistake by the refueling guys, but that seemed like too big of a coincidence. I stopped believing in coincidences a long time ago. Luckily, Shmi was almost as good at fixing things as Anakin.

The queen and Panaka returned from the Senate meeting in the early evening. It had gone about as well as we had expected. The Trade Federation delegate was not happy that the queen had asked for a Jedi run commission and tried to delay it and discredit the Jedi, but Chancellor Valorum still had enough power to push through the queen's request. The Jedi Council had promised to send out a team as soon as possible for the investigation.

While we waited for the ship repairs, I gave my datachip that had recorded all my underground ocean exploration to Annabeth and Panaka. I had shoved the thing in my bag what felt like forever ago before I fought the droids on Naboo. They sent my map of the underground ocean network to the resistance groups and arranged for resistance fighters to meet us at a lake near Theeds.

Annabeth and I took a shuttle to the ship a bit earlier than our departure time because she insisted on doing one last check. Every time I tried to ask her why she was so paranoid, she would tell me "Not now." She did a sweep of the ship both on the outside and the inside with Daedalus 2.0 and found several listening bugs placed in key locations. I enjoyed stomping on them, but I was worried that they were there at all. It seemed Annabeth was right to be super paranoid. I just wished I knew why.

I was so preoccupied trying to figure it out that I nearly ran straight into a huge metal box on a hover board as I got off the entrance ramp. The thing was so big it barely got through the ship's entrance. "What's with the giant box?"

"Oh, that's the queen's wardrobe? Or at least the cloths she took off the ship." Annabeth answered. "Maybe, I should scan that too."

Before I could tell her that she was definitely going overboard, another shuttle arrived and Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan stepped out.

"Hey, I haven't seen you guys in ages," I called out with a grin, relieved that the two Jedi actually would be helping us. Obi-Wan just shook his head at my comment while the spark in Qui-Gon's eyes showed his amusement.

"So, the Council did send you for the investigation," Annabeth stated with a smug grin because she was right.

"Actually, the Council is sending another team to investigate the Trade Federation's actions," Qui-Gon said with a small smile. "They will be taking their own ships to Naboo, so that the investigation remains unbiased. But your predictions were still correct in a way, my young, perceptive friend," he added when he noticed Annabeth's confused look. "Our mission is to continue to protect Queen Amidala. The Council recognizes that the conflict could escalate to a galactic civil war should anything unfortunate happen. Also, we are to confront and interrogate the Sith, Darth Maul, if presented the opportunity."

"So, what did the Council decide about Ani?" I asked, not able to wait any longer to find out what happened to my friend.

"The Council accepted him as a Jedi initiate," Qui-Gon replied. "Master Yoda seemed particularly impressed with the boy's honesty and did not sense the usual negative emotions associated with an older child letting go of his attachments." Part of me was really happy for Anakin since he would be able to do what he always wanted. I tried to focus on that part and not the part that felt like the Jedi were taking him away and would brainwash my adopted, little brother into a robot.

"It was close though," Obi-Wan elaborated. "Many on the council believed Anakin was too old, and Master Mundi and Master Windu were particularly concerned about any negative influence you may have had on the boy, Percy."

I snorted, "I assume this Master Window is the serious, bald dude, my second biggest fan on that council, right behind the cone-headed dude?"

"Master Windu," Obi-Wan emphasized the ending of the name. "But, yes you are correct that he was one of the ones most concerned with your presence in this galaxy."

"Try not to judge them too harshly," Qui-Gon advised. "They are both great Jedi Masters in their own rights, but they are both very traditional. And, you, Percy, are anything but traditional for a Jedi which is why they were so concerned."

I nodded. Frankly, I didn't really care too much what they thought about me. At this point, I was pretty used to getting important people mad at me just by existing. "So, Anakin's staying at the Temple?"

"Yes, we left him with the other Jedi initiates where he will train and catch up on the coursework," Qui-Gon explained. "Although, he did not seem particularly happy to be left behind once he realized Obi-Wan and I were returning to Naboo, but a war zone is no place for a child. In time, I will take him on as my Padawan. I have recommended to the Council that Obi-Wan face the Trials once we return from this mission. He has been ready for sometime now, and I am sure they will agree. I have no doubt that Obi-Wan will do well and become a much wiser Jedi than me." Obi-Wan seemed equally surprised and pleased at the sudden praise from his mentor.

Annabeth glanced around at the mostly empty landing platform, "There's something important I need to tell you guys. I can't tell the queen or Panaka until I'm a hundred percent sure, but someone else needs to know."

"Is this why you've been so suspicious of everything lately?" I asked.

"Yes, you see, I have reason to suspect that the whole invasion of Naboo was a set up to get Senator Palpatine elected as Supreme Chancellor."

Unfortunately, the queen's shuttle pulled up to the landing platform right then, and Annabeth clamped her mouth shut. By the stunned looks on the Jedi's faces, I could tell that they were at least as shocked by Annabeth's claim as I was. Annabeth and I hung back as Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan greeted the queen, but the Jedi quickly dropped away from the procession so that the four of us were the last to board. As soon as the entrance ramp closed, and we were alone in the loading bay, Qui-Gon asked, "That was a very serious accusation Annabeth, could you please explain your reasoning?"

"Well, all the evidence suggests that the invasion of Naboo was a power play to elect a new chancellor. The only question remaining was which one was our enemy trying to get elected. Out of the three most likely chancellor candidates, Senator Palpatine is the only one who could possibly get more votes because of the invasion."

"Wait, I thought it was that pro-slavery guy?" I asked. "He makes more sense."

"I agree that an alliance between the Trade Federation and the Corporate Policy League would make sense, but the fact is that a large armed corporation invading another planet would actually drive votes away from Teem because all but the strongest pro-business supporters would seek to elect a chancellor that would put more control on those large corporations to prevent a similar thing happening to other systems. This could drive votes to Bail Antilles–"

"But, he is one of the few good politicians in the Senate," Obi-Wan interrupted.

"So is Palpatine, at least I thought," Annabeth stated. "He has managed to pass through a lot of good legislation that has helped many people and has funded several charities. But, because the Trade Federation attacked Naboo, Palpatine is the only candidate who would get more votes."

"Ah, the sympathy vote," Qui-Gon concluded. Annabeth nodded.

"So, you think Senator Palpatine is the Trade Federation's unknown ally, this Sith Lord?" Obi-Wan asked, unable to hide the skepticism in his voice.

Annabeth frowned, "I doubt he is the Sith Lord. I mean you guys would be able to sense him, right? You could sense Darth Maul leagues away."

"Even though the dark side is known to cloud our vision, I'm sure the Council would be able to sense the presence of a Sith so close to the Jedi Temple," Qui-Gon stated though he seemed like he was trying to reassure himself just as much as he was reassuring Annabeth.

"I suspect that the Sith Lord is either currently blackmailing the senator or was planning to as soon as he was elected," Annabeth predicted. "That way, he could remain hidden while pulling all of the strings and controlling the most powerful office in the galaxy. Either way, I'm sure this Sith Lord keeps a close eye on the senator's office and probably has warned the Trade Federation about our plan." Man, I really hated it when the enemy always knew your plans. Hopefully, we would reach the Gungans before the Trade Federation.

Qui-Gon frowned, "This is most troubling indeed. Thank you for confiding your suspicions with us. Our mission regarding the Sith is now more important than ever. We must determine the identity of this Sith Master and apprehending Darth Maul is our only option at the moment."

When we reached the main area of the ship, I was surprised that we were already traveling through hyperspace. I guessed I was so distracted by Annabeth's revelation that I didn't even notice our take off. It turned out that I wasn't the only one who wasn't paying attention to my surroundings because Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon suddenly stiffened. "Is that whose presence I think it is?" Obi-Wan questioned.

"What? Who do you sense with your creepy Force sense?" I asked.

Qui-Gon frowned, clearly troubled, "It is Anakin."

 **Author's Note: Warning, I probably will not be able to post again for at least two weeks.**


	20. I Get a Shock

**Sorry for the long wait. Thanks as always for all of the reviews, favorites, and follows.**

 _Previously: "What? Who do you sense with your creepy Force sense?" I asked._

 _Qui-Gon frowned, clearly troubled, "It is Anakin."_

* * *

Chapter 20: I Get a Shock

"What's he even doing here, I thought you said you left him at the Jedi Temple?" I asked. Honestly, at that moment I would have rathered Anakin stay safe with the Jedi than come with us on a possible suicide quest.

"More importantly, how did he get on this ship, and why did you not sense him before we jumped to hyperspace?" Annabeth demanded, clearly not happy with this new development either. "There's no way we can turn around now. It would take too long to approach and leave Coruscant again."

"It's not unheard of for initiates and Padawans to sneak out of the temple," Obi-Wan explained as he and Qui-Gon led us through the ship. Qui-Gon gave his Padawan a curious look, and Obi-Wan quickly added, "Or, so I have been told, but I do think Anakin might have set a record. The Council will not like this. They barely accepted him to begin with. They may not take him back now that he has run away."

"Anakin will still be trained." Qui-Gon sounded confident, but his frown said a different story. "As for not sensing him sooner, I believe Anakin subconsciously dampens his Force presence when he feels in danger or is trying to stay hidden. It explains why he was able to remain undetected even though other Jedi have visited Tatooine in his lifetime and should have sensed him. I imagine he relaxed his guard as soon as we entered hyperspace. Though, I will also admit that I was not as mindful of my surroundings in the Force as I should have been and allowed myself to be distracted by Annabeth's theories." We stopped outside of the queen's private quarters. "It might be best if Annabeth is the one to bring him out given the location of his hiding spot."

"He's in there?" Annabeth huffed exasperated. Qui-Gon just nodded. "It seems we have serious problems with our security if a nine-year-old boy can just sneak into the queen's chambers. It's a good thing he's not a Sith." Well, at least I wasn't the one she was mad at this time. Even though I was mad at Anakin myself, I couldn't help but feel sorry for the poor boy. Between facing a raging Minitour or an angry Annabeth, I would pick the Minitour any day, no contest.

Several death glares, a few very concerned handmaidens, and one angry rant by Annabeth later, we were all in the main hold. Anakin had weathered the worst of Annabeth's anger like a champ with lots of looking sorry and wincing at all of her threats. Finally, Qui-Gon asked what I really wanted to know, "I just do not understand why you would leave the Jedi Temple, so recklessly. You were aware of your tentative position as an initiative. I thought you wanted to be a Jedi. You seemed happy at the Temple, so why did you leave?"

Anakin hung his head, "I'm sorry, Master Qui-Gon sir, but I just felt like I had to be here. Like something really bad would happen if I didn't come." He glanced at me before continuing. "It was like when Peter Johnson knew he had to save his friend Grover and then again when he had to save Annie Bell even though all of the adults in charge told him not to. So, I snuck out just like he did although I had to crawl through air ducts and droid service tunnels and then sneak into the queen's wardrobe."

Uh-oh, I was so busted. Now, Annabeth was glaring at me. "Really Seaweed Brain, Peter Johnson! As if that wasn't bad enough you just had to use Annie Bell!"

"Who is Peter Johnson?" Obi-Wan asked, confused.

Annabeth snorted, "He's Percy. Our camp director likes to show how little he cares about us by purposely calling us by a wrong name, and that particular one is Mr. D's favorite for Percy."

Qui-Gon gave me an amused look, "Perhaps, the Council is correct, and you are a negative influence on Anakin."

"Hey, I didn't think he would use that as an example to run away," I said defensively, "Besides, he wasn't supposed to know it was me in those stories."

"Oh, I figured that out ages ago," Anakin said with a smug grin.

"Annoying child geniuses," I muttered, "they are too smart for their own good."

Both Anakin and Annabeth laughed at that, but then Anakin must have thought of something because he suddenly frowned, "Where's my mom?"

"Panaka convinced her to stay on Coruscant with the Naboo senator until this is all over." Annabeth answered. I couldn't help but smile at that. Over the past few days, I had noticed that Panaka seemed to be getting along quite well with Shmi. "After all, a war zone is no place for an untrained civilian."

Anakin seemed relieved, "Good, at least she will be safe."

I cringed slightly when I remembered Annabeth suspicion and cocked an eyebrow at her, my way of silently asking if Shmi still would be safe. Annabeth replied with a confident nod. Annabeth was hardly ever wrong, so if she thought Shmi was still safe then that was good enough for me.

Finally, once everyone had settled down, all five of us laid out sleeping gear in the main hold. I wasn't sure why the Jedi had decided to change their sleeping arrangements, but it might have had something to do with the bedtime stories I kept telling Anakin. I was pretty exhausted after such a stressful day, but before I could go to sleep Anakin begged, "Percy, can you please at least finish the story? You stopped right when Kronos was sneaking up to Olympus. I have to know how it ends!"

That was a pretty bad place to stop telling a story, but I had to stop when we reached Coruscant. "I don't know, Ani. Those stories are why you are here to begin with and not safe at the Jedi Temple. Maybe, I shouldn't tell you anymore."

"Pleeeaase!"

I sighed, "Only if Qui-Gon says it's okay." Honestly, I was hoping the Jedi would say no, so I could just go to sleep. I would tell Ani the rest of the story later even without the Jedi's permission because no one should be left with a cliffhanger forever.

"Will it encourage young ones to run away?" Qui-Gon asked.

I thought for a second before responding, "No, I don't think this part will."

"Then, I suppose there is no harm in continuing," Qui-Gon reasoned. "I will admit that I am rather curious to hear more details about your past missions."

So, with that I fought back my sleepiness and finished telling Anakin about the Battle of Manhattan. For some reason, I still used Peter Johnson, instead of saying I or me. I guess somethings were easier to share if you pretended it was all a story that happened to someone else. When I finished, everyone was quite for a moment, and I wondered if anyone else was still awake. Then Anakin started firing off questions as fast as possible, "I can't believe you turned down being a god! What was that prophecy about? What did your mom think about you courting Annabeth? Did the gods keep their promise? What happened to your invulnerable skin? Did Luke really get into Elysium?"

"Woah, slow down dude," I interrupted, stopping the endless questions. "Shouldn't you be more tired after a long day because I really am. So, I will answer only one question tonight. The rest will have to wait until later."

He thought for a moment before asking "I really don't get why you say Luke is a hero after everything he did. I mean it sounds like he tried to kill you, a lot. Don't you hate him?" Of all the questions he asked it had to be that one. I saw Annabeth stiffen even in the dim light, and both Jedi seemed to perk up. Guess, I had an attentive audience for this super personal question, but I also knew everyone needed to hear my response. I mean Luke had been a difficult topic between Annabeth and I for so long, and I needed the Jedi to understand that sometimes just because you hated someone didn't mean you would turn evil. And more importantly, if you did turn evil, perhaps it was possible to still be good.

I took the time to gather my thoughts because man was this a complicated question, "Honestly, I used to hate him, but now I don't. I guess I can understand why he turned against the gods a lot better than I used to. He was tired of being used by the gods as a pawn or a source of entertainment." I really couldn't stop the bitterness seeping from my voice. I was getting pretty tired of it too, especially since that seemed like the main reason why Annabeth and I got zapped to a different universe.

"Originally, I think he just wanted to make life better for half-bloods," I continued, "but he let Kronos twist his good intentions until they warped into something evil. So, Kronos was always the real bad guy. At the same time, though, I don't know if I will ever completely forgive Luke. He did make a lot of bad choices. But, even after all the terrible things he did, he somehow was able to make the right choice at the end and sacrificed himself to save the world. Not many people could have mentally overpowered Kronos like that. But mostly, what Luke did in the end, it kind of gives me hope that maybe if I ever actually did become evil, there's a chance that I could end up doing good again no matter what I had done. That there always is a chance for redemption. All it would take is one good choice at a time to turn my life around and maybe help make up for all the bad that I might have done."

"I guess I sort of understand," Anakin stated. He gave a huge yawn and was soon fast asleep. Annabeth gave my hand a gentle squeeze, and I drifted off to sleep too.

* * *

Of course, that's when I had my worst dream yet in this new universe. I found myself in this huge room that looked like it must have been part of an old factory since there were lots of big robot arms and conveyer belts all pushed to the side. Two figures were there. I immediately recognized the red and black tattoo-faced, evil dude that had attacked us on Tatooine, Darth Maul. He looked pretty rough, sprawled on the floor, and his clothes were smoking slightly as he pushed himself into a kneeling position in front of the hooded guy, our mystery Sith Lord. "I have informed those fools in the Trade Federation about the queen's plan to ally with the Gungans," the unknown Sith Lord said in a creepy, nasally voice. Great, that's definitely not what I wanted to hear from this guy. "They have promised to locate and subdue the primitives before the queen arrives, but they are confident that even if the queen does form an alliance with the Gungans, they will be no match for the droid army. Based on their previous incompetence, I doubt their ability to succeed even with the superior force. Therefore, you must guarantee the success of our plan, my apprentice. You will remove the Jedi and anyone else who stands in the way. Queen Amidala must sign the treaty."

"Yes, Master," Darth Maul replied.

"Do not fail me again, Apprentice. Next time I will not be so forgiving," the Sith Master threatened.

Darth Maul nodded his head in understanding, but I saw fear in those yellow eyes where I had only seen anger and hatred before. I didn't want to think what it meant that this super tough, macho, evil guy was actually afraid of this guy hiding behind a hood. Darth Maul stood, and both the master and the apprentice walked towards a door which brought them closer to my observation spot.

"You will leave immediately," the Sith Master ordered. "It could be a nuisance if the Jedi commission returns, but I am certain my allies in the Senate will–" he suddenly stopped walking. "I sense a presence." He turned towards me. Uh-oh that was never good when evil lords noticed you spying during your dreams. Kronos could sometimes sense me, and Keli the empousa also had that annoying ability too. I guess I shouldn't be surprised that these Sith could do it as well with that Force sensing the Jedi were able to do.

Darth Maul stopped with his master and also turned towards me. His mouth formed a vicious sneer, "It is the boy, the one I fought on Tatooine. How is he here, Master? I thought your power masked our presence so that not even the Jedi could find us."

The Sith Master tilted his head, as he considered me. Even though I was facing him directly, his hood was so deep, all I could make out was a pale chin and the tip of a nose. I tried to move, but my dream-self seemed rooted to the spot. "So, this is the mysterious Percy Jackson who has been causing so much trouble," the Sith Lord mused.

Huh, how did this guy even know my name?

"I know a great many things, young Jackson," he said in an amused, almost taunting tone. Guess I must have said that out loud. I was still trying to figure out how this dream spying worked. I knew he couldn't really see me, because on my quest with Frank and Hazel, I had used my dream to tell Tyson to protect Ella and confused the big guy since he could hear me but not see me. The Sith Master approached me or my conscious or whatever part of me that was there. I had a feeling he was seeing me with something besides eyesight. "I admit, I am impressed with whatever Force trance you have achieved. Not even Master Yoda during his deepest meditation would be able to find me since the power of the dark side clouds even his vision. But, this does not seem to stop you, quite intriguing."

I felt like I was a bug, and this Sith guy was examining me with a huge magnifying glass, debating whether he would squash me, watch me slowly burn alive, or catch me for further study. I didn't like the feeling, so I went with my very strategic tactic for distracting my enemies, annoy the Hades out of them. "The first evil lord I defeated blamed this particular talent on my unpredictable nature," I said with a casual shrug.

The Sith Master stiffened for a moment at the not so vague threat I made. Then he laughed, a cold, cruel chuckle, that would have made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up if I actually had a body here. "Such arrogance, young Jackson," the Sith said once his evil cackling died down, "it will be your undoing. Though now I understand, this is not the first time you have spied on me. That explains a great deal. Perhaps the previous times were over a hologram, which is why I was unable to sense your rather distinctive presence." I didn't like how quickly this guy was figuring stuff out. I tried to will myself back to my body and end this bad dream, but unfortunately, I'd never had much control over my dreams. "Tell me, what are you really, for I know you are no Jedi? Where did you come from? Who was this evil lord you claim to have defeated?"

I could tell he was trying to goad me with that last question. A trick to get me to boast about my victory and reveal more about myself, but I wasn't going to fall for it. Despite what he may think, pride was not my fatal flaw. I mentally snorted, having no idea how that would come across in whatever weird, invisible, dream form I had. "For someone who claims to know a great many things, you clearly don't know a lot."

Darth Maul snarled at the insult to his master and stepped towards me, but he stopped when the Sith Master extended his hands with his fingers bent to form a sort of clawed shape, pointed right at me. "Just know, young Jackson," the master said in an almost casual tone, "if you are ever this disrespectful in person, this will be much more painful." Streaks of blue-white lightning shot out of both of his hands heading straight towards me.

I woke with a start, my heart pounding. I looked down, no smoking clothes no burns. The ship was still in night cycle, but Annabeth stirred next to me and opened her eyes. She must have noticed the panic on my face in the dim light because she sat up and quietly asked, "What did you see? And why is your hair sticking up like that?"

Keeping my voice low so I wouldn't wake the others, I told her everything that had happened in my dream while I tried to flatten my static hair. "This is really bad," she said when I was finished.

"Yeah, you think?" I asked sarcastically. "The Trade Federation will target the Gungans. This Sith Lord mastermind knows about me and my dreams, and he can pull a freaking Grace sibling and shoot lightning out of his hands. Did I miss anything?"

"Nope, that pretty much sums it up, though the Sith Master did mention allies in the Senate, meaning plural, which is way worse than one corrupt senator." In a gentler voice, she asked, "But, are you okay? The lightning didn't really get you did it, since it was a dream?"

I shrugged, "No it didn't. Though maybe I got a small electric shock through the dream or something because not even my bed hair is this bad. Besides, it's not like getting hit by lightning would be anything new for me." I didn't add that getting hit by that stuff would be a lot worse than the electric shocks Thalia used to give me. That lightning looked like it would be as painful as a lightning bolt, but it could last a lot longer. Hopefully, I would never have to feel it in person.

We both laid back down, but I didn't think I would be able to fall back to sleep. Every time I closed my eyes, I could still see phantom streaks of lightning, like what happens when you stare at a bright light for too long. Annabeth scooted her bedroll closer to me and grabbed one of my arms wrapping it around her while she snuggled into me. My thoughts drifted back to that night in the stables on the Argo II. Maybe, if I fought hard enough and didn't make any more oaths, Annabeth and I could still have that chance at a happy, relatively peaceful life if not in New Rome than maybe on Naboo. Maybe, the drioid armies and Sith Lords would stay far away. With that happy thought in mind, I sank into a deep thankfully dreamless sleep.

* * *

Needless to say, when we all gathered in the queen's throne room the next morning, no one was thrilled with the news from my dream. "Are you sure you don't have anything that could help us identify this Sith Master? Or at least a location?" Obi-Wan asked clearly disappointed with my lack of details.

"Nope, all I got is that he's male, appears to be human, needs a tan, and has a seriously creepy laugh. As for location, my dreams don't work like that. If I don't recognize the place, or literally see a sign then I have no idea where it is. But, is shooting lightning out of your hand a common Force power?"

"It is usually only a dark side technique," Qui-Gon answered me. "There haven't been many reported sightings of it since the last Sith war though my own master did use it once to save my life."

Obi-Wan gave his master a curious glance, but Queen Amidala steered us back to the problem at hand. "So how does this new information affect our plan to retake our home?" Although she asked the room at large, her attention was on Annabeth.

"Well, Your Highness, there are only two things that really affect us," she explained. "Firstly, we must approach the Gungans with greater caution since we know the Trade Federation might have already found them and set a trap by the time we arrive. This also means it is extra important to come up with a backup plan not involving the Gungans. Secondly, we know for sure that Darth Maul will be there. Therefore, if we use a multi-pronged attack, we will need to evenly distribute Force-users between the contingents to avoid a complete massacre. As well trained as the Gungans and our own Security Forces are, I believe Darth Maul would easily defeat them unless challenged by a Force-user, preferably two based on the combat skills we observed on Tatooine. Do you agree Master Jinn?"

"Yes, I believe that would be the best course of action to avoid any great loss of life."

"What about the Jedi assigned to the Senate's commission?" I asked, "Will they help us once they realize how bad the situation is?"

Qui-Gon thought about it for a moment before responding, "I believe both Master Gallia and Knight Fisto will do all they can to restore control of the planet to the people of Naboo."

"That would definitely help a lot," Annabeth admitted.

Then Padmé asked, "Does anyone know how the Sith Lord even found out about our plan to form an alliance with the Gungans?"

Annabeth bit her lip no doubt debating how much of her suspicions she should say, "Currently, I have two hypotheses. The worst-case scenario is a spy as Senator Palpatine pointed out. It technically could be anyone in this room, or maybe someone high up in the senator's office. The other option is that the senator's office is bugged. I'm sure a successful politician like Senator Palpatine knows to have his office checked for such things, but before we left Coruscant, I used my computer to find several listening devices with a unique design on this ship. I believe most general detection scanners would not have found these new listening devices, so perhaps this Sith Lord managed to have a few placed in the senator's office."

"We should warn Senator Palpatine about this as soon as we land," Panaka stated. Annabeth and I shared a look, both of us clearly wondering if the senator was the one we couldn't trust.

We spent the rest of the day figuring out the best way to approach the Gungans and then discussing the strengths and weaknesses of the Gungan army. Even after the queen dismissed us to get some rest, Annabeth used me as a sounding board for her endless stream of battle plans and alternatives without the Gunguns until late into the night. We both knew at this point there were just too many unknowns, but that didn't stop Annabeth from trying to come up with a plan for all possible circumstances.

The next day, I realized early on that it would just be another really long meeting, so I sort of snuck out of the throne room at the first opportunity I got. Sure, not my proudest moment since it was my idea to come back and fight, but I really didn't see a point in trying to plan any more until we knew if the Gungans would fight with us. Plus, I was getting pretty sick of all these formal meetings in fancy offices, council chambers, and throne rooms. I missed the good old days where a serious meeting meant sitting down at a ping pong table and eating cheese whiz.

Obi-Wan found me a few hours later in the main hold practicing with Riptide solo. I stopped and asked, "So, Qui-Gon sent you to make sure I wasn't doing something that could destroy the ship in my boredom?"

Obi-Wan nodded, his mouth forming a small smile. "Something like that. Wouldn't it be a better use of your time to help the queen strategize, after all you know the Gungans and Naboo's hidden waterways?"

I shrugged, "Not really, Annabeth's much better at battle strategies and planning ahead. I'm more of the under pressure, last minute, crazy idea kind of guy."

Obi-Wan raised his eyebrows, "Do these crazy ideas ever work?"

"A lot of them do, actually though even I'm not sure how." I chuckled, remembering some of my greatest hits. "I mean this one time I helped kill this monster with impenetrable fur, like even your lightsaber would just bounce right off this thing, by throwing our planet's nasty dehydrated space food into its mouth. I also managed to dust my evil, giant half-brother, who the ground instantly healed, by dangling him from the ceiling by his loin cloth with the chains he had used to display the skulls of his victims."

Obi-Wan seemed torn between looking impressed or disturbed. "I am not sure I even want to know your thought process for concocting those particular tactics."

"Hey, they were clearly the work of a master genius."

He had a mischievous glint in his eye when he said, "You mean a deranged lunatic." I cracked up at that. Obi-Wan even managed a chuckle. His eyes focused on my sword. "Would you like a sparring partner? I could use some movement after standing still for so long."

"Sure." I had to use Riptide since I didn't have Qui-Gon's lightsaber, but Obi-Wan still put his weapon on nonlethal mode, so at least I didn't have to worry about Riptide smoking when its water essence got depleted.

After our water break, Obi-Wan carried back a cup and placed it on the floor next to where we were practicing. "Percy, I think you should try using your powers while we spar during this next round." He gave a pointed look at the water in the cup. "Maybe, just try to levitate it. You seem to have good control of your powers when you are calm and focused, but I want to see if you can do it in a more distracting situation."

"Umm, that might not be the best thing to do right now," I replied. I really didn't want to think about what would happen if I accidentally formed a mini hurricane on a space ship. "I've only used my powers while I've fought when I really needed to, and they sort of get swept up with my fighting."

"That is exactly why you need to do this exercise. You seem to rely on your instincts when you use your powers. While you may have managed some impressive feats that way, it is also the reason you blow up toilets when you get upset. You need to learn to control your powers regardless of what you are doing or feeling, so that they don't get as you say swept up unless you want them to."

"But I could end up destroying the ship," I tried to make him understand.

Obi-Wan just smirked, "Sounds like extra incentive to not lose control." I may have said some rather unflattering words about annoying Jedi in ancient Greek. He sighed, "Look, Percy I trust that you can do this. You just need to trust yourself. Besides, there is not a lot of water in that cup."

I sighed, "Fine, just don't say I didn't warn you. And if anything happens, I'm totally telling Qui-Gon it was your fault." I closed my eyes and opened up my sort of sixth sense to pick up the water. I only felt the tiniest pressure in my gut as I lifted the water out of the cup and shaped it into a sphere above us.

We started slowly at first. Part of my mind was focused on keeping the water up. But, soon Obi-Wan picked up the pace, and I got caught up in the rhythm of the fight. Unfortunately, the water got caught up as well, but I was too focused on the fight to notice until Obi-Wan gritted out, "Percy, control it."

I glanced around and realized the sphere of water had become a swirling cloud of water vapor spinning fast enough to make quite a breeze in the room. Oops, I concentrated, and all the water vapor halted in mid air before condensing back into a sphere. It was a good thing it was such a small amount of water. Obi-Wan waited a moment for us both to catch our breaths before he said, "Again."

"What are you nuts?"

"Just be sure to focus this time," he calmly replied.

With an over dramatic sigh, I lifted Riptide, and we started again though this time I made sure to pay more attention to my water sphere. Compared to creating personal hurricanes, keeping the water in a ball floating in the air was less tiring, but it required more focus since the intensity of my sword fighting did not match the intensity of the water movement. It was like trying to rub your belly and pat your head at the same time. I knew this wasn't my best sword work since I was more focused on the water, and Obi-Wan could have easily won the bout if he wanted to. But, he seemed content to just keep playing defense. Eventually, when I thought I was about to collapse after hours of swinging a sword, he called for a break.

"That was better, though next time you need to increase the pace of your fighting," he said in a smug voice. With a wave of my hand, I sent the sphere of water right at his face, but he managed to Force push it away just in time. I cocked an eyebrow at the challenge. We both focused on the ball so that it kept changing directions between us, but never moved very far either way. Before Obi-Wan could realize what I was doing, I expanded the sphere into lots of water drops and flung all the droplets at him from several directions.

"Not fair, you changed it's form," he said good naturally as he picked up his outer brown robe and used it to dry his face.

I just smiled, "I didn't think you Jedi were so competitive."

He shrugged, "Some are more than others though the masters try to discourage such behavior, but I was more curious if I could even hold it in the Force while you were controlling it."

I thought back to our game of tug-a-war, "It felt like I was controlling the water, but you were pushing the air around it. So, it felt like I was running it into a wall"

Obi-Wan nodded his agreement, "Then, when you changed the shape of the water, most of it was able to evade my Force push."

* * *

That night, Anakin once again pestered me for a story, "Please Percy what happened next? What happened with the next Great Prophecy?"

"What, you don't believe we all just lived happily ever after?" I asked, sarcastically.

"Well no. You and Annabeth somehow got here, so something must have happened in the two years between now and the end of the Titan War," he reasoned. "Plus, clearly you're no longer invincible since you were bleeding when we left Tatooine."

I thought about everything that did happen in that second Great Prophecy. "Ani, I don't think I'm ready to talk about what happened next even if I tried to pretend it all just happened to Peter Johnson. It's still too fresh." Sure, we had given Panaka and the Jedi Council summaries, but those weren't as personal as the stories I was telling Anakin. Plus, I really didn't even want to try to describe Tartarus to a nine-year-old. "But, yes, I did wash off the Curse of Achilles for better or worse."

"How could washing it away be a good thing?" he asked.

"Near invincibility can really get to a guy's head, even mine," I replied. "I'm sure if I had it long enough I would have gotten overconfident and sloppy. It would have killed me one way or another. There is a reason it's called a curse."

"Can you at least tell me how you got here? Are you from a different galaxy or something?" he begged.

"Actually, we think we're from a different universe altogether since Annabeth and I don't have any midi-chlorians. As for how we got here, I was dumb and made a stupid wish out loud. Annabeth and I had another perfect day ruined by a monster attacking us because he wanted the great glory of killing me. So, I wished we could live someplace where no one knew us, somewhere we could just have a normal life in peace. Unfortunately, Nemesis heard and decided to grant my wish."

"That's Ethan's mom, right?" he asked.

I smiled. The gods didn't really like being referred to by their kids. "Yep, not exactly the most pleasant goddess."

"Well, I think you need a refund on your wish," he stated. "I mean, you're about to fight a huge droid army and a Sith to retake your planet. That doesn't seem very normal or peaceful."

I laughed a little at his very sound logic, "Yeah, you're right, but I'm starting to think that's the point Nemesis was trying to make. I mean she did give us a fresh start. No one knew about us when we came here. They've never even heard of the gods. But, somehow in less than a year, I've aggravated another evil lord, sworn a binding oath to free thousands of slaves from cruel gangsters, and am about to be in another battle. I'm clearly a trouble magnet no matter what universe I'm in, but if I really wanted a normal life here, I suppose I could have just let myself get rounded up with all the other citizens of Naboo and be stuck in a prison camp. I guess I'm finally realizing that I might never be able to have a normal life. I just can't sit back and do nothing when there are bad things happening around me, especially to those I care about. Jedi, please ignore that last part." Qui-Gon chuckled softly at that comment.

There was a pause before Anakin asked, "Percy, do you think I could be a half-blood like you and Annabeth? My mom always said I didn't have a dad, but maybe that's because he's a god."

"Wait, you don't have a dad?" I guess I always just assumed that Anakin's dad must have died or just left.

He shook his head, but even in the low lighting, I could see the hope in his eyes. I glanced at Qui-Gon, "I thought you said there weren't any gods in this universe."

"I said to my knowledge there weren't any beings like you described," Qui-Gon emphasized. "However, I believe Anakin was actually conceived by midi-chlorians."

"So, if my dad's a limited form of the Force and Anakin's dad are these Force microorganisms, I guess that means we are sort of related," I said with a grin. "Welcome to the crazy family Ani!"

"Great, now he'll just be even more attached," Obi-Wan muttered. I wasn't sure if he was talking about me or Anakin, but at the moment I really didn't care.

* * *

By the last day of our journey, everyone was pretty tense. There was no more planning they could possibly do, so that just left the awkward wait before a battle. Maybe flinging part of my lunch at Padmé wasn't the nicest thing to do, but she just looked so stressed and miserable that I had to do something to distract her. It quickly escalated into a full-scale food fight with a few other handmaidens banding together against us boys, and Annabeth, the traitor, joined them, quickly using one of the tables as a shield and organizing their attacks. Even Qui-Gon joined in. Obi-Wan was a grumpy old man about it until Anakin and I got him pretty good. In the end, all of us were laughing, and I realized just how young we all were. Most of us in that room were still teenagers. Panaka might have been less than pleased when he checked to see what all the noise was and got some food on his shiny uniform, but he knew better than to reprimand us. He was a good soldier. I understood that the silent nod he gave me was a thank you for boosting everyone's morale even if I had chosen a messy way.

After Annabeth, Anakin, and I had rewired the ships computer to play music from home instead of dimming the lights when the pilots switched to the night cycle (I had the very important job of look out), we lay low in the spare equipment room. Pranking to boost morale was always a very noble cause. It was the first time the three of us had been alone together in a while, so Anakin was telling us all about his tour of the Jedi Temple and the other initiates he had met. It did sound like he could have a good life there, assuming the Council would take him back. "Oh, I almost forgot to give you these." He reached into his pocket and handed us each a metal wristband about the size of a watch.

"Thanks, Ani, it looks like they came out pretty well," Annabeth said inspecting hers.

"Umm, what are they?" I asked.

"They are special comms I built for you guys. Annabeth helped me figure out how to boost the range, and she gave me more of that Celestial bronze wire to make them. I'm pretty sure that's some kind of wonder material. Its properties are incredible. If only I had enough to make a droid with it." He got a far-off look that I recognized when Annabeth starts day dreaming about architecture. I groaned. Celestial bronze automatons was the last thing that this universe needed. He seemed to shake himself out of his droid dream and continued explaining the wristbands, "Anyways, these comms are a pair, so they can only communicate with each other, but they should be able to reach each other almost anywhere in the galaxy as long as you're not in hyperspace. If the other one is in hyperspace, and you try to contact it, then this light will flash. I figured these would be useful if you guys are ever separated."

I was pretty impressed that this little thing could reach across the whole galaxy. "Wow, that's really neat! Thanks Ani!" I put the band on my wrist and his eyes lit up. "But now I feel like I need to give you something."

"No, you don't Percy, neither of you do, really" he said seriously. "You both have already given me so much. You freed my mom and promised to look out for her when you can. Annabeth's given me some really cool specs that I can build when I'm not training, and you've given me all those stories to help me be brave. This really was the least I could do."

"Well at least let me give you a hug, after all you're sort of family," I scooted over and gave him a Tyson style hug. Annabeth joined in a few seconds later.

I don't think any of us slept well that night. At one point I noticed that Ani was missing. I figured he was probably freaking out about tomorrow since there was a really good chance that we all could die. I heard soft voices coming from the mess hall, so I headed in that direction. Sure enough, there were Anakin and Padmé sitting at a table with their backs to me. It looked like they were maybe drinking tea or this universe's version of hot chocolate. I was trying to decide whether I should join them or not when Anakin said, "Percy really loves Annabeth doesn't he?" I froze even though I was aware that I was once again eavesdropping.

Padmé laughed softly, "Yes, he really does, and I know Annabeth loves him just as much. It's really cute how they sort of complete each other."

"Some day I want to love someone that much." Poor guy, he really didn't get this no attachment rule. Though maybe between the two of us, we could change the Jedi's minds, show them that true love could save you.

I decided that I'd heard enough and would leave those two to console each other. I started to quietly head back to the main hold, but I still heard Padmé say, "Well, whoever she is, I bet she will be a very lucky girl."

 **Author's Note: Next chapter is sort of half written, so hopefully, I can get it out before two weeks.**


	21. I Have a Crazy Idea

**Thanks as always for all of the reviews, favorites, and follows. I had hoped that Chapter 21 would include the battle, but the length got too long, so you will have to wait till the next chapter.**

Chapter 21: I Have a Crazy Idea

Since Annabeth did nothing but strategize for two days straight, the final plan for meeting the Gungans was super complicated. I was all for landing our ship near the Gungan hangout and then just introducing the queen to Boss Nass, but apparently that was too risky. "First off, we could be walking right into a trap if the Trade Federation did manage to find and defeat the Gungans because of the Sith's warning, so the queen needs to be farther away when we first approach," she had ranted when I suggested my idea. "Secondly, if the Trade Federation doesn't know where the Gungans are, we don't want to lead them there. And, thirdly, Boss Nass would be very mad at you if you just brought the sovereign of Naboo into his top secret, sacred place."

So that's why the first part of the plan had us landing on the complete opposite side of the planet from our actual destination but near the Gungan city Otoh Mandassa that always had several heyblibbers, the Gungans' larger subs. I swam down to the hidden city and borrowed one of the heyblibbers. It was pretty eerie because the city was completely empty, so I returned to the surface as fast as possible. Then, everyone piled into the sub.

I'm sure me showing off with my powers was not part of Annabeth's plan. But, when Obi-Wan boarded the sub, he asked, "Are you sure you can drive this without it blowing up?" and eyed the controls in front of me almost wistfully.

"Oh no you don't, Jedi boy, this baby is all mine," I said with a smirk. "Just sit back and enjoy the ride of your life." Well, after a statement like that, I really did have to follow through, so I used my powers to take ridiculously sharp turns through the tunnels at impossible speeds and did some pretty crazy evasion moves when a colo claw fish tried to eat us in the planet core.

When we reached the shore of a lake a few miles from the Gungan hangout, Obi-Wan was one of the first to leave the sub. I heard him mutter to Qui-Gon, "I think I prefer flying than that!" His master just chuckled.

I was not a big fan of the next part of the plan, mainly because Annabeth and I would be separated. Obi-Wan, Jar Jar, and I would head to the Gungan's sacred place first to make sure it wasn't a trap and then convince Boss Nass to meet with the queen. Annabeth and Qui-Gon and the rest of our party would stay with the queen. "Are you sure you can't come too?" I begged Annabeth one last time.

"No, Percy, you know we need two Force-users to stay here and protect the queen, and Obi-Wan needs to go with you so that at least one of you has a lightsaber." She said reasonably, "It won't be for long. Just please don't do anything too stupid, Seaweed Brain."

We kissed goodbye, until Obi-Wan did one of his awkward coughs and dragged me away. He called back to Annabeth, "I'll do my best to make sure he comes back in one piece." She had the nerve to laugh.

I couldn't help glancing back as we walked away. "Honestly, Percy, she will be fine," Obi-Wan stated confidently. "I don't see why you are worrying so much."

I just shrugged, "It's just it seems like every time I turn my back on her, she's falling off a cliff."

Obi-Wan smirked, "I'm sure she has far more reason to worry about you falling off a cliff, my friend."

"Hey, I don't fall off of cliffs, maybe huge arches but not cliffs."

Obi-Wan just shook his head, like he'd given up trying to understand me.

Luckily, we didn't run into any droids or Sith Lords. The only hazard was Jar Jar constantly tripping and almost knocking me over. The Gungan scouts found us about a mile out. Both of them insisted on shocking Jar Jar with their spears but then escorted us the rest of the way. They led us to a sort of swampy grove with the remains of statues and an old temple. Boss Nass yelled at Jar Jar, practically ignored Obi-Wan, but was thrilled to see me. He laughed as he said, "Mesa taut yousa caught by da Machineeks!" in his deep voice.

I grinned, "Oh come on, your Bossness, you should know by now that is would take more than a few Machineeks to get me. Oh, by the way I might have borrowed a heyblibber to get here, but don't worry, it didn't get a scratch." He laughed again and patted my back. I guess he was in a pretty good mood, so I decided better now than never to bring up the queen. "I am really glad all of you guys are okay, but I didn't come here just to visit. Queen Amidala of the Naboo wants to form an alliance. I didn't want to break my promise, so she's a good distance from here. But, she would like to speak to you. She hopes the Naboo and Gungans can work together and get all the Machineeks off the planet." In this case, I figured I should use the Gungan word for the droids to remind him I was still on the Gungans' side too even if I was speaking for the queen.

I could tell Boss Nass wasn't too happy about this. He made his tkk-tkk-tkk noise. "Wesa not need da Naboo. Wesa haf a grand army."

"Then why are you hiding here instead of fighting the Machineeks right now?" I questioned. I was starting to get annoyed with the Gungans' pride. Hopefully, it wouldn't get us all killed. Boss Nass looked offended. The exasperated look in Obi-Wan's eyes told me he thought I had clearly insulted the Gungan too much, but before the Jedi could say something, I continued, "Because you are smart, and you know the droid army is much bigger than yours. But, Queen Amidala has a plan to capture the leaders of the Trade Federation. If you want to fight and beat all the Machineeks and reclaim our planet, right now is the best chance you're going to get. And, maybe once we chase those Trade Federation goons off our planet, things between the Naboo and Gungans can change for the better. Show them that you are smart. Queen Amidala wanted an alliance even before the Machineeks came here. Please, just meet her."

Boss Nass thought about it for a moment before he did his signature blubbering. I smiled knowing that meant a yes. "Wesa'll spake witda Naboo."

"Yes! Thank you, Boss Nass. I'll tell Annabeth to bring her right away," I gave him a little bow and stepped away from the Gungan leader. I used my new fancy comm from Anakin to contact Annabeth. "We did it! So, you guys better get here as soon as possible before he changes his mind."

"That's great Seaweed Brain! How did you convince him?" Her voice sounded crystal clear, like she was right next to me.

I winced, "Well I might have called him a smart coward. He didn't like the coward part, but he liked the smart part."

"Sounds like Seaweed Brain negotiation at its finest: part offensive, part complimentary."

"Hey, at least it worked. And can you make sure the queen doesn't come across as snooty or anything like that when she meets with him."

Annabeth groaned, "Percy, our queen is not snooty." I swore I could hear some giggling going on in the background on her end. "However, I will warn her that the Gungans view the Naboo as arrogant." After I confirmed the coordinates, she promised to see me soon and ended the connection.

I saw that look in Obi-Wan's eyes, like he couldn't believe I just did something that stupid, "Should I try to contact the Supreme Chancellor so you can offend him too? It seems as if you are trying to set a record on how many governing leaders you can insult in five minutes. I'm not sure how you got Boss Nass to agree to a meeting after talking to him like that."

I smirked, "What can I say, it's one of my many talents!"

The meeting with Queen Amidala started pretty badly at first, with the queen talking like a politician in her fancy combat outfit. Honestly, I don't know how anyone can fight in a headdress like that, and I'm used to fighting in full Greek armor! Needless to say, Boss Nass wasn't too happy. But, then Padmé stepped forward and claimed that she was the real Queen Amidala and that the girl in the fancy outfit was just her decoy. I'm pretty sure a few bugs flew in my mouth because I was so shocked. Annabeth just looked smug.

"You knew this whole time, didn't you?" I muttered.

"Yep, ever since I heard the name Padmé on the ship. That was her name before the election."

"I guess they switched back on Coruscant?"

Annabeth nodded. Well, now I knew why the queen all of a sudden knew me a lot better. I groaned as I realized something else, "Now, Obi-Wan will never stop teasing me. I actually threw food at my elected ruler."

Annabeth was trying very hard not to laugh. At this point we all started kneeling though, so she was able to duck her head and hide it. I was impressed that Padmé was willing to do something so humbling, but it was exactly what Boss Nass needed to convince him that the Naboo really didn't think they were superior to the Gungans. I was just happy that my two adopted races in this universe had finally formed an alliance. Maybe, things really could change here. It wasn't long after that Boss Nass sent out riders to gather the Gungan Grand Army, and we all started the march to Theed.

* * *

In case you were wondering, walking through a swamp is not fun. Between the bugs, bristly vines, and thigh deep mud, I would have almost preferred a stroll through the Labyrinth than the over three-day hike from the Gungan hideout to Theed. At least I was able to keep my socks dry using my powers. More Gungan troops from other evacuated cities joined us along the way. Based on the reports, it seemed like the Trade Federation had sent more droids into the swamp as the Sith ordered, but the Gungans were very good at guerilla warfare.

By the third day, I thought we might actually be able to pull this off. We had 2,000 Gungan soldiers and about a hundred from the Naboo resistance. Annabeth had fallen a bit behind me because she was carrying Anakin piggy back style through the mud and talking about genius stuff with him and Qui-Gon. I was impressed that even marching through a swamp didn't seem to dampen Anakin's spirit. My own mood was even better because I knew this would be out last day marching. I started humming one of my favorite camp songs, "Down by the Aegean."

Obi-Wan groaned beside me, "Not again, I just got the last tune out of my head. What's got you in such a good mood anyways?" I glanced over and saw a very miserable Jedi. Obi-Wan's long brown robe was soaked and caked in mud.

I grinned at him, just to emphasize how not miserable I was with my dry clothes before replying, "I guess it's just because we might actually have a chance at this. I never thought we would be able to rally so many troops. It's way more than I've ever fought beside in the past."

"How many troops did you have in your previous wars then?" he asked.

I shrugged, "It depended on the battle. Most of the time, we were lucky if we had 200, and we were always heavily outnumbered mainly because there are way more monsters than half-bloods. Usually, reinforcements would come at the last minute."

Obi-Wan frowned, "That's not very many at all. How many half-bloods were there back on your world?"

"I guess maybe 400 or so total including a few girls-only clubs. It's sort of hard to tell on the Roman side though because they include legacies, what we call descendants of half-bloods."

"Why does only the Roman side include legacies? Why not the Greek side as well?" Obi-Wan asked.

I sighed, "Honestly, most Greek half-bloods don't live long enough to have kids. From my experience, our average lifespan seems to be fifteen. I've done my best to change that, and hopefully, now that we have an alliance with the Romans, maybe things will be better. I may not like a lot of the Romans' rules and super outdated traditions. I mean really, who insists on wearing bed sheets." I glanced at my friend's dirty robes, "Though, I guess your bathrobe isn't much better. But, the Romans really did an amazing job of building an infrastructure so that half-bloods can grow up and live the rest of their lives in relative safety. Something I could have only dreamed about before."

Obi-Wan was quite for a few steps as he thought about what I had said, "I cannot imagine living in that kind of an environment, where you do not expect to grow old. Do not mistake me, being a Jedi can be very dangerous and some of us do die young, but that is considered unusual."

"Eh, you get used to it. It just really makes you appreciate the time you have." I wanted to change the subject to something less morbid, so I asked, "How many Jedi are there?"

"We have about 10,000 members in the Order."

I was so stunned that I stumbled, "10,000?" It was hard for me to even imagine. And, if they all could do what I'd seen Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon do…

"However, there are nearly 25,000 systems in the Republic, so we are often spread pretty thin," Obi-Wan added. "And, not all Jedi do what Qui-Gon and I do. Many use their connection with the Force to help grow crops for those planets that struggle to feed themselves or provide other services for the Republic." I nodded, as I was once again hit with how far away I was from home, back where we just had to worry about one little planet. I couldn't imagine trying to worry about thousands of planetary systems. "It is interesting that your home has so many Force-users. Four hundred from one planet is rather high. Are all half-bloods as strong in the Force as you and Annabeth?"

"I'm still not sure about all this Force stuff, but no, Annabeth and I are both probably on the stronger end for half-bloods," I admitted. "No one really knows why some half-bloods are stronger than others. I mean one factor is definitely your godly parent. My dad and his two brothers are pretty much the most powerful gods, so their children tend to be a bit more powerful. But, I've also known some half-bloods who have a lot more power than their half-siblings." I thought about Piper and Leo, especially. "Some of my friends think it might be based on how much your godly parent loved your mortal parent." I shrugged, "Or that could just be wishful thinking" I added. I'm sure I wasn't doing a good job of hiding the sadness and hurt in my voice. "After all, what kid doesn't want to think that their parents loved each other."

Obi-Wan shrugged, "I would not know. I never thought too much about my parents." He said that statement the same way I would say 'the sky is blue.' There was no resentment or even longing. It was just a fact that he just now realized.

Curious, I asked "Do you wish you knew them?"

He considered my question before replying, "No, I do not. I suppose I will always be grateful to them for bringing me into this world and allowing me to go to the Temple to be trained as a Jedi. I know you disagree with that particular custom, but honestly, I cannot imagine being anything else. From the pure joy I feel when I immerses myself in the Force and the knowledge that I am part of something larger than myself, something greater, it is all part of being a Jedi. I suppose it is also liberating, knowing that I will never be burdened by the weight of my parents' legacy. Whether they were royalty or slaves, I am free to make my own way in the galaxy just on my own merit."

For the first time, I was a little jealous of Obi-Wan, not because I wished I didn't know my parents but because I had always been burdened by my father's legacy long before I even knew who he was. I knew Obi-Wan didn't mean to, but my good mood was officially ruined.

* * *

When we stopped for the evening, we were just a mile of so from the Great Grass Plains, and I knew tomorrow would be the day we fought back. The two Jedi from the Senate commission found us there probably using their strange Force sensing. I was just happy they made it because we could definitely use the extra lightsabers. Annabeth grabbed my hand and rushed over to them. Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan were already there, talking to the new Jedi in hushed voices.

". . . hacked the multi-troop transport computer and downloaded the log," the female Jedi said. I recognized her as one of the Jedi on the Council. She had extremely blue eyes, dark, almost blue tinted skin, sort of a scaled head, and light-colored tendrils instead of hair which reminded me a little too much of Gorgon snake hair. But, at least her hair tendrils didn't move on their own like the snake hair did. "Just in case, we grabbed a few droid heads as well. I tried to send back a live feed of the troops and the prison camps, but I can not reach the Council or the Senate Committee with the communication block, so I just made a recording."

"That should be sufficient to convince most of the Senate," Qui-Gon approved. He saw us standing there, so he started the introductions. "Annabeth, Percy, this is Master Adi Gallia. As I'm sure you remember, she is a member of the Jedi High Council." Adi nodded her head in greeting at us. Like, most Jedi she seemed to have an amazing poker face, so I had no idea what she was thinking. Her eyes though seemed a little warry but mainly curious. Qui-Gon then turned to the other Jedi who I had never seen before. "And this is Knight Kit Fisto." The new Jedi seemed like a cross between an octopus and our stereotypical alien back on Earth. You know little green men with big heads and huge black eyes. Like those aliens, he was green and had the black eyes, but he was taller than me by almost a head and had long, thick, green tentacles instead of hair. He gave us a little bow, as Qui-Gon continued the introductions, "Knight Fisto meet Annabeth Chase and Percy Jackson."

We both shook his hand. Unlike, his Jedi companion Kit grinned at us. I didn't even think that was allowed. "So, you are the two Force-users that have the Council in such a fluster. It is a pleasure to meet you," he said with that huge smile still on his face.

I smiled back, "It's a pleasure to meet a Jedi that can actually smile!"

He laughed, "We are not all as serious as Padawan Kenobi or as enigmatic as Master Jinn. You clearly need to be around more Jedi." I laughed too as Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon both gave Kit almost matching looks of annoyance. I had a feeling I would like this Jedi.

Boss Nass and Padmé or should I say Queen Amidala, sheesh that would be confusing, had set up a sort of command center, so Annabeth and I and the four Jedi headed over there. Panaka, Anakin, and a few of the resistance leaders were also present for our pre-battle meeting. After the new Jedi were introduced, Padmé explained the plan. There would be four groups attacking the Trade Federation at different locations. The largest would be the Gungan army that would draw most of the droids away from Theed. The Naboo Security Forces making up the resistance would fight another front in the city of Theed to distract even more of the droids and try to free some of the citizens. While the droids were busy, a small group including the queen would sneak into the palace and capture the viceroy. The fourth group, made up of pilots, would take the ships from the Royal Hanger and knock out the droid control ship. Annabeth had told me that the last part had been Padmé's idea to try to prevent the droid army from overwhelming the Gungans.

"Do we have an estimate on the droid numbers?" Annabeth asked.

"My scouts reported over 4,000," Panaka answered.

Some of the resistance winced and even Padmé looked a little shocked. I smiled though and elbowed Annabeth, "Wow, that's like two to one. Much better odds than the ten to one we normally start with."

But, Annabeth frowned, "It will not be easy. The droids definitely have the advantage with the long-range weapons. If they get past or disable the shields, a lot of Gungans could die until the droids are deactivated."

"Wesa ready to do our-san part," Boss Nass said proudly.

I didn't like the idea that many Gungans would die, "And Annabeth and I will help too. Maybe, we can come up with something to stop the droids from getting past the shield?"

I glanced at her, but she was biting her lip. "That is another thing," she said. "How do we want to distribute the Jedi and Percy and me? Although we could use everyone we can get, I think it might be best if either Knight Fisto or Master Gallia returns to Coruscant and presents the evidence to the Senate," Annabeth stated. "Hopefully, that will compel the Senate to swiftly act against the Trade Federation and send aid despite whatever allies the Trade Federation may have in the Senate. If things go badly for us, that evidence might be Naboo's best hope."

Qui-Gon nodded his head in agreement, "That would be a wise course of action."

"I will go," Adi volunteered. "I have been a source of intelligence for the Senate in the past, so they should trust me."

"That's even better," Annabeth said, looking pleased. "Very well that leaves the five of us."

"Obi-Wan and I must stay with the queen," Qui-Gon stated. "And Anakin will come with us. Once we reach the palace, he will be able to stay hidden."

"So that leaves you, me, and Kit with the Gungans," I reasoned.

Qui-Gon looked expectantly at Annabeth who was biting her lip again. As soon as she looked at me with her grey eyes, I knew I wouldn't like what she said next, "Percy, that's not the best strategy according to our skills. You should stay with the Gungans. Your particular talents would be better suited for a large-scale battle. Knight Fisto will be able to help in case Darth Maul shows up with the droids. However, with my special cap, I would be better staying with the queen and helping them reach the throne room. Plus, if Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan are fighting a Sith, I would still be there to protect the queen."

"I agree with your assessment, Annabeth," Qui-Gon said with a small smile. "It is the best way to distribute the Force-users."

Deep down, I knew they were right, but I hated the idea of being separated from Annabeth during a battle, "But we promised to stay together." I knew it was a low blow reminding her what I said right before I let go of the ledge and dropped into Tartarus with her.

She winced. "This is different Percy. It won't be for long, and we will know exactly where each other will be. Perhaps if the Gungan battle goes well, you can come to the palace and help."

"Percy, would you really endanger countless lives and the freedom of the planet?" Obi-Wan tried to reason with me.

I was about to tell him yes if it meant that Annabeth would be safe, but I didn't get the chance because Annabeth looked me right in the eye and squeezed my hand with hers, "Please, Percy. Trust me to be okay. I can take care of myself just fine, and in this case, I trust you to do the same. This is what I want. It will give us the best chance to win this thing."

Everyone was staring at me: Padmé, Boss Nass, Panaka, all the Jedi, and Anakin. I remembered what I told Ani a few days ago that sometimes the best way to show that you loved someone was to honor her choices even if you didn't want to. I sighed, "Fine, I trust you Wise Girl, but as soon as it looks like the Gungans have control of the fighting, I'm hoping on a sub and getting to that palace."

She beamed and gave me a peck on the cheek, "Thank you, Percy."

* * *

After that everyone sort of spread out and did their own thing. Boss Nass asked if I wanted to participate in a Gungan battle ritual so that the gods would bless them, but I turned him down – partly because it would have felt weird praying to other gods that weren't the Olympians, and also, I really didn't want to cover myself in mud which was apparently a key part of the ritual. Instead, I sat on a log with Annabeth as she tried to come up with some strategy that would help the Gungans defeat the droids. After she used Daedalus 2.0 to evaluate the droid command ship's defenses, she didn't think the pilots would have much success. The shields were just too strong and trying to blow it up from the inside would be a suicide mission.

So, that just left me and Kit and the Gungans trying to hold off a massive army until Padmé and Annabeth could capture the viceroy. After watching a few of the battle simulations Annabeth ran on Daedalus in hologram mode, I was beginning to realize exactly how hard that would be. The fight had to be in the open if we wanted to draw out the droid army. This gave them a huge advantage because even though the Gungans were pretty good fighters from what I had seen, they had practically zero long range weapons. I mean we were going against tanks and blasters with basically ancient Roman catapults and slingshots. Even something like bows and arrows would be better. Plus, there was a chance that Kit and I wouldn't be able to help the Gungans if Darth Maul showed up.

Annabeth had tried all different ways of organizing the Gungan army, but in the end, they were always overrun. I stopped paying attention after the fifth one. It was kind of depressing watching all of the hologram Gungans die, and I knew if we didn't think of something, that's what would happen tomorrow.

"Amazing," I heard someone say softly though the speaker was a good bit behind me. "I could not sense anything, and now, their Force presences are impossible to ignore." It was Kit and the rest of the Jedi a few yards away.

"Yes, it does take some getting used to," Qui-Gon admitted.

"I don't understand why their Force presence is so much stronger now than it was in the council chamber," Master Adi wondered. "I mean it changes as you grow in the Force and if you shield your presence, but that is not the case here, is it?"

"You should have felt Percy's when he was piloting the sub," Obi-Wan commented, "It was incredible when I was not concerned that we would crash in a tunnel that is."

"You know we can hear you," I called back over my shoulder though Annabeth just muttered something about optimizing trajectory. "Well, at least one of us can." I turned around on my log and faced them as they joined us. Annabeth just gave them a nod before furiously tapping on Daedalus 2.0 to start up another simulation.

"I imagine their Force presence flares whenever they are around or using their parents' spheres of influence," Qui-Gon answered. "At least that's the only pattern I could find."

"I understand how Miss Chase is clearly using her mother's domain." Adi looked at me curiously, "However, you, young Jackson, do not appear to be doing anything. I also do not see any seas or oceans nearby, yet your Force presence is far stronger than on Coruscant."

I just shrugged, "Don't look at me for answers. I'm still trying to get used to the idea that my powers supposedly come from this Force."

"I imagine on a planet with underground oceans, we are never very far from a water source," Qui-Gon speculated looking at the ground. "Hence, the flare so to speak in Percy's Force presence."

Huh, I had never really thought about it. I mean, I clearly knew the underwater oceans were there, but I had never thought about how they would affect me. Now, that I was thinking about it, I realized that I could always sense the salt water beneath me on Naboo. It was just a comforting sort of feeling in the back of my mind like wearing a favorite hoody that also happened to give you a constant drip of caffeine. And, I guess if Qui-Gon was right then that would explain why I always felt stronger and more alive and just overall better around water. I glanced over at Annabeth who groaned as the hologram Gungan army was once again gunned down by the droids. What we really needed was something to destroy the tanks and split the droids, a sort of second front. I focused on the ocean somewhere beneath me, wondering exactly how far away it was. I didn't know if I would be strong enough to do it, but it might be our best shot.

"Okay, crazy idea time," I told Annabeth. "Can you pull up a map of the plains with how far the underground water is from the surface?" I hesitated, thinking it over some more. "And maybe, add fault lines just to be safe."

 **Author's Note: Sorry for another setup chapter, but I really needed somethings to get discussed. Also, I can not take credit for the idea that a demigod's power could be related to the love of the godly parent for the mortal parent. I read it in a Harry Potter/Percy Jackson crossover years ago, but I have unfortunately forgotten which one, so kudos to that author.**


	22. Annabeth Saves the Queen

**Thanks as always for all of the reviews, favorites, and follows. Sorry for the late update. I knew September was going to be an extra busy month, and I had hoped I could finish through Episode I before the craziness hit, but unfortunately I couldn't. Thanks for being patient.** **Part of this chapter was once again inspired by Anna Camp aka Obi-quiet's amazing time travel fic "Hindsight is Not Perfect."**

Chapter 22: Annabeth Saves the Queen

I had to get up before the sun the next day because Percy's Underwater Taxi Service was the best way to sneak in 100 resistance fighters, a queen, and a couple of Jedi into a heavily guarded city, though Annabeth and Obi-Wan did drive the other two heyblibbers. Everyone got out of the subs in a secluded, wooded park along a branch of the Solleu River. I knew their next step was to retrieve a few tanks that Panaka had hidden in a warehouse on the opposite side of the city from the Naboo Security Force armory, just in case the main armory was compromised during an attack. I guess sometimes it really does pay to be extra paranoid.

I climbed out too, just so I could wish everyone good luck. I gave Obi-Wan a Roman handshake, the one that Jason had taught me on the Argo II. Instead of grabbing the other person's hand, you grabbed their forearm. According to Jason, it represented friendship and loyalty and all that good stuff. "If you get the pleasure of fighting old tattoo face, give him an extra kick for me. That guy owes me a few bruised ribs."

"Revenge is not the Jedi way, Percy," Obi-Wan said, but he was smiling.

"Oh fine then, just invite him for tea." I turned to Anakin next and ruffled his hair. "Be safe, Ani. Trust your gut, but remember sometimes the best thing you can do is to just wait and watch." I couldn't believe I had just said that. "Maybe, one day I'll actually remember to do that too."

He flung his small arms around me, "I will Percy. At least I'll do it better than you probably ever will," he laughed, but then his face scrunched up with worry, "Do you think you can really use your powers to do all of that?"

I glanced towards the rest of the group that was gathered around Panaka and Padmé for final instructions. I knew he was talking about my crazy idea, but only the Jedi, Anakin, and the Gungans knew about it since I was still trying to keep my abilities quiet. Although I wasn't completely sure myself, I told him, "I'll make it work. I mean it's not like it's blowing up a volcano or anything. That stunt almost killed me."

"You blew up a volcano?" Obi-Wan asked, stunned.

"It was an accident, and I sort of just made it start spewing fire and smoke again." I was still a little defensive about that. It wasn't like I meant to reactivate Mount St. Helens and dislocate half a million people. Qui-Gon looked amused, but when I caught his gaze, his eyes became serious. He gave me a solemn nod, and I returned it. I knew he was discretely reassuring me that he would watch out for my friends.

Panaka came over and clapped me on the back. "I'm not sure what crazy plan you and the Jedi devised, but please, Percy try to stay alive."

I nodded back, "I will. And thanks, Panaka, for everything."

Saying goodbye to Annabeth was the hardest. I kissed her trying to communicate how much I loved her through that act. Part of me wondered if I would ever be able to kiss her again. I told that part to shut up. "Come back to me, Seaweed Brain," she muttered as she slowly pulled away.

I pulled her close one more time and pressed my lips against her forehead whispering, "Always, Wise Girl."

I watched as they broke up into groups and headed to the main parts of the city. Then, I jumped back into a heyblibber. I had a lot to do before I could come back to Theed. I exchanged the heyblibber for the smaller, faster bongo at the closest Gungan city. I dropped my new sub off at a spot in the Solleu River close to where the battle would be. Hopefully, it would stay out of the destruction zone. I could just make out the Gungan army emerging from the swamp and knew I had to hurry. I dove back into the water and swam through the tunnel network under the plains until I reached a specific spot. Bessie Jr. joined me along the way. Apparently, she didn't like the droids messing up her hunting, and she really enjoyed smashing them. The droids' blasters couldn't get through her thick hide, but the tanks definitely could which was why they were going to be my first targets.

I took out the Jedi short range comm that Master Gallia had given me before she left for Coruscant last night. "Tidal Wave is in position." Despite what was coming, I still grinned at the cool code name I'd given myself. "What's going on up there?"

"We are at the correct coordinates," Kit said over the comm. "No sign of the droid army yet, and I do not sense the Sith Lord either." I kind of hoped that Darth Maul would be with the droid army because I wanted a rematch, and this time, I would be on my home court not some desert planet. As soon as I saw him, I planned to make him take a little swim. It would help that Kit could breathe underwater too, and the Jedi Knight had told me that most lightsabers didn't work underwater. Kit had to make a special adjustment to his so that it would work while submerged.

As I waited, I put my hand on the rocky ceiling of the tunnel and tried to feel how much water was already in the cracks and fissures above me. We had found a really good spot with help from data Daedalus 2.0 had pulled up. There was about two hundred feet of rock between me and the surface, and there already was a large fracture in the crust that luckily ran away from Theed in both directions. So, the city shouldn't be affected even if I lost control. All I had to do was push enough water through a spot and the facture should do the rest of the work for me. In a hundred years or so, this tunnel would probably have become another branch of the Solleu. I just had to speed up the process to under a minute. At least the water around me was a little salty, so I got more of an energy boost than I would from just freshwater, but it didn't feel as good as the oceans back home or the water closer to Naboo's core.

Kit's voice came through, "They are here. Still no Sith. Wait for my signal." So, I waited. It felt like an hour but was probably only a few minutes. Riptide was already in my hand, and I was sitting on Bessie Jr., right behind her neck. I'm pretty sure that I was the first person to ever ride a sando aqua monster. "The shields withstood the heavy fire from the tanks, but they are deploying the droids now," Kit finally said. "The Gungans are forming their shield wall at the shield boundary. It will not be long now." The shield wall had been Annabeth's idea. After running some calculations, she realized that the Gungans' bubble shield would be able to stop the tanks and blaster fire, but the droids were small enough and slow enough to pass through. As soon as the droids could use their blasters, the Gungans were at a huge disadvantage at long range combat, so the Gungans best chance was to force the droids to fight at a close range. She managed to convince Boss Nass that the Gungan army needed to form a phalanx directly behind the boarder of their bubble shield using the Gungans' personal energy shields to form the shield wall and electropoles as spears. That way the Gungans could stab the droids with an electropole right as the droids passed through the shield before they could even fire their blasters. Even if a droid did manage to fire at the Gungans, a well-positioned shield would just deflect the blast bolt right back at the droid.

My role was to wait until the first few droid lines got knocked out by the Gungans. Then, Bessie Jr. and I would push our way up, 100 yards in front of the Gungans' shield, splitting the droid army and hopefully whipping out the tanks.

"Now," Kit shouted.

I drove Riptide into the rock above me and pushed the water with all my will through the opening fissures. It felt kind of weird because usually I did this in reverse, plunging Riptide down into the rock and pulling water up. The cracks above expanded. Rocks started falling, but the water current kept them away from Bessie Jr. and me. The tunnel shook all around us. The water had reached 100 feet. I started feeling a strain in my gut, but I kept pushing, ten feet left, then five.

Finally, I broke through the surface. Huge chunks of earth flew everywhere smashing droids. Bessie Jr. roared as she pushed herself out of the hole along with a huge geyser of water. I screamed, and with a hard tug in my gut, water sprung out all along the fracture, widening it and splitting the earth. The ground rumbled and the droids toppled over. I raised my arms and a huge wave formed behind me. As I thrusted my hands forward, the wave rushed straight towards the fifteen tanks that were staggered about 50 yards away. Some were crushed by the force of the wave. Others toppled over, or the water shorted out their power. The wave retreated to the new opening I had made, dragging the last several rows of the droid army with it. I felt shaky and light-headed. Besides Mount St. Helens, I'd never used my power on such a large scale before. I told Bessie Jr. to dive back in the water for a moment just so I could recover some.

Kit's concerned voice came out of the comm. "Percy, are you injured? Where did you go?"

"Sheesh, give a guy a break. I just need a minute to catch my breath. I'm only half of a god, and I just cracked the freaking ground."

He chuckled, "Fair enough. As long as you did not strain yourself too much."

"I'll be okay," I replied. Before I returned to the water, I had felt really tired, but it was a mental sort of tired like when you want to take a nap after a long exam and your mind turned to mush tired. But, physically, I felt fine. The water was already giving me an adrenaline boost, so I didn't feel so sleepy. "Though if I don't want to pass out, I should probably avoid moving water anytime soon, but I can still fight," I added. I remembered what happened to Nico when he strained his powers shadow traveling across the world. My cousin literally was turning into shadows. I wondered what I would turn into if I strained my powers. A puddle? I tried to take my mind off that disturbing thought, "So how many did I take out? Is the shield still up?"

The sounds of blasters and Kit's lightsaber came through my comm for a few seconds before the Jedi responded, "The shield is still active. The fambaa riders were skilled enough to control their mounts when the ground started shaking. You managed to knock out about a quarter of the droids, and the Gungans dispatched about 200 more. However, there are three tanks left. They were the farthest from your entry point two on the left and one on the right."

"Okay, I'll go for the left ones first then get the last one on the right, so Bessie can do her stuff." Once the tanks were gone, Bessie would be our second front, so to speak, crushing the droids outside the Gungans' shield and diving back down before she could get overwhelmed.

"Very well, I'll cover your back," he stated.

When I was ready, Bessie leapt out of the water and crushed several droids with her arms before diving back in. The cannon fire from a tank just missed us. I jumped off of her neck as she crashed back into the water and landed with a roll. I started sprinting towards the tanks on the left. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Kit do a Jedi flip over my new stream and follow behind me. His green lightsaber deflected any blasts that got too close. One of the tanks turned towards me and fired. At the last second, I dove to the right and kept running. When I got close enough to one, I leapt up and used the main cannon to swing onto the roof. I slashed through the canon with Riptide then drove the Celestial bronze blade through its center. The tank sparked and shuddered beneath me and then stopped moving altogether. I quickly leapt to the top of the other one that was several yards away just before the first one exploded. This time though the driver seemed ready for me. The hatch opened, but I cut the droid in half before it even got its blaster up.

Then, I got an idea. I jumped down the hatch left open by the droid. I landed in a tiny room with lots of buttons and joysticks and even a few peddles. I figure it couldn't be too hard. After all, I used to play video games. I sat in the chair and just started pressing things. I figured the big red trigger was probably to fire the canon, so I avoided it until I was ready. Turns out, the peddles moved the canon. I lined it up with the other tank across the field and pressed the trigger button three times. The other tank blew-up. Thank you video games! And, my mom said they were a waste of time.

"This is not protocol," said a mechanical voice below me. I just had time to duck as a droid fired its blaster. The next one I deflected off with Riptide. The bolt hit something, and a red light flashed while a warning buzzer went off.

"Guess it's time to go!" I pulled myself out of the hatch and jumped off the top of the tank. I didn't stick the landing and ended up eating dirt. But, I definitely should have scored a 10 for style because the tank exploded right behind me, again.

Kit helped me get to my feet with a huge grin on his face. Luckily, I hadn't hurt anything besides a few brush-burns from the grass. "Your talent for causing explosions is quite impressive!"

"I'm just naturally gifted," I grinned back.

All the explosions got the attention of the droids, and about 200 had turned around with their blasters pointing straight at us. Unfortunately, my crack hadn't made it this far so there was nothing between us and them. I probably should have thought this out a little better. Even with Kit's lightsaber, we didn't have a chance. Maybe if I had a shield, but Tyson hadn't been able to repair my watch before we left with all the camp reconstruction he had helped with. "Surrender now Jedi," said a droid commander.

"Any more explosions up your sleeves?" Kit muttered.

"Nope, but I've got a large friend who loves to smash things." I mentally shouted for Bessie, while doing my best New York taxi whistle. The sando aqua monster exploded out of the water and flattened a third of the droids around us. The rest started firing at her, but she just shook off the bolts like flies and crushed some more with a huge sando aqua monster smile on her face. After that, it was pretty easy for Kit and me to make it back to the Gungans' shield.

The shield wall technique seemed to be holding up well, but it definitely was not all sunshine and rainbows. A Gungan would get hit and fall, but another one quickly stepped up and took his place. I grabbed one of the shields from a fallen Gungan. Its long oval shape was more like the legion's shields than the circular ones I preferred, but I definitely needed it to deflect any stray blaster bolts. I joined the Gungan shield wall but moved whenever I saw a breach. At one point, I thought we were in trouble when a squadron of those rolly polly droids got through and spread out behind the shield wall. They had their own shields that even deflected Riptide which would have been pretty cool if they weren't trying to kill me. Kit was able to knock a few over with the Force, which weakened their shields enough that I could stab them with my sword. I managed to slice one while it was rolling, but the remaining three were super annoying. They had managed to surround us and kept firing from different directions, so Kit couldn't focus enough to Force push them.

Eventually, I got so tired of dodging blasts that I risked bringing some water from the new stream. The tug in my gut was so intense that I dropped to my knees. Luckily, Kit covered me with his lightsaber. I was only able to grab like three gallons, and I shoved them at the droids hoping they would short-out or something. Unfortunately, the water did not penetrate the shield. "Styx, that was my last idea." I dropped the water and scrambled to my feet, holding up my shield. As the droids advanced, I noticed that they stepped into the puddles from my failed attempt with the water. The water was now inside their shields! This was so going to suck, but I gritted my teeth and lifted the water from the ground. I sort of just directed it to any place that looked important and pushed the water. The droids wobbled and sparked, but most importantly their shields shut off. Kit sliced them pretty quickly with his lightsaber after that.

I was once again on the ground. My gut was so tight that I threw-up my breakfast. Kit helped me up and gave me his water flask to rinse out my mouth. "You pushed yourself too hard," Kit said.

"Did you have a better idea?" I grumbled.

"I am sure if you were more patient, the Force would have provided one that did not involve you getting sick."

Before I could argue back at such a Jedi answer in the middle of a battle, my comm wristband went off. "Percy, Darth Maul is here," Annabeth said. "Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan just broke away from the group to hopefully detain him."

Oh well, guess I wouldn't get my rematch, but it did mean that I could leave this battle a lot sooner now that I knew Darth Maul wouldn't just pop up and try to kill all of my Gungan buddies. I looked around, and the Gungan lines seemed to be holding now that the rolling droids were down. In fact, I would even say that there were more Gungans than droids. "Things are going pretty well here. I'll check with a general, but I'll probably be on my way soon."

"Okay, see you soon. But Percy, please be careful, especially once you get to the palace," Annabeth warned.

I found my friend Roos, and he confirmed that the Gungans had everything under control. "Goin to her," he said and gave me an appraising look, "favorite of Gobba." I wasn't really sure who Gobba was, but I had a feeling I wouldn't like it when I found out.

"I will go with you as well," Kit told me before I took off for the Solleu River where I left the bongo. "I sense that I am no longer needed here."

We were able to sneak out away from the fighting and make it to the sub. I quickly jumped in the driver's seat, and Kit took the seat next to me. As soon as the sub went under, I started to feel a little better. My body automatically relaxing as water surrounded me. Gulping down the water from my bottle helped a lot too. I was debating whether it was worth using an ambrosia square from my pack to speed my recovery, so I could use my powers again. Yes, I wanted to get to Annabeth faster, but I should probably save the godly food for deadly emergencies. I tentatively tried to will the current to push us but immediately doubled over, barely keeping my hands on the controls. Nope, that wasn't happening.

"Here, allow me," Kit said. He closed his eyes and took deep breaths like he was meditating. Then, the water responded, and a strong current increased our speed. It was strange since I could still sense the direction and speed of the water and use it to our advantage while driving, but I wasn't controlling it.

"Thanks! Can all Jedi do that?" I asked.

"I suppose they could since I am just using the Force to push the water, but I do not believe many of my comrades have tried since they are not underwater as much as I am," Kit responded, keeping his eyes closed. "But, please no more talking. I imagine I require a great deal more concentration to manipulate the currents than you do."

With Kit's help we made the normally 30-minute submarine ride down the Solleu in about 15 minutes. I parked the sub as close to the palace as I could get. It was in a small alcove right before a waterfall. I pressed a button on my wrist band and said, "Kit and I are just outside the palace."

It took a few seconds for Annabeth to respond. "There are too many droids, so when we get a chance, we are going to use ascension guns to reach the throne room level. If you could distract and get rid of more droids, that would help."

I grabbed my pack, hooked my blaster on my belt, and left the sub with Kit. I knew the blaster wouldn't have helped me much in the battle on the plains, but in the long corridors of the palace with a few groups of droids, it would definitely be nice.

"Any ideas?" I asked as we ran toward the palace.

"Enter the palace and attract as many droids as possible to hopefully clear the queen's path more," Kit responded.

I grinned, "Well, I've never had a problem attracting trouble."

We entered through the Palace Guard offices since I knew that entry code. I guess the Trade Federation was too lazy to change it. Sure enough, my trouble magnet worked, and 20 droids found us. But, between Kit with his lightsaber and me with a blaster and Riptide, they were down in less than a minute. We continued making our way towards the throne room, leaving a trail of broken droids behind us. We only had three floors left, when another seven rolly droids surrounded us.

"Great," I muttered as both Kit and I slid to a halt. The droids hadn't fired at us yet, but they didn't need to. We were stuck, and they knew it. "Any ideas? I'm all out."

"Not at the moment" Kit said. A squad of normal droids arrived, and the commander ordered us to surrender and hand over our weapons. I tried to reach for the plumbing, but the stabbing pain told me my powers hadn't recovered yet. Kit glanced at me with concern, "Just do as they ask for now. I sense we should wait. Hopefully, the others will have better luck."

This whole trusting in whatever Kit was sensing in the Force was weird, but I handed the commander droid Riptide and my blaster. Riptide would return to my pocket anyways which was pretty much the only advantage I had at this point. The droids marched us in the direction of the throne room. "Man, Annabeth's so going to kill me if these droids don't," I muttered. I knew us getting captured could turn this whole thing into a hostage situation which meant we could lose any advantage we managed to gain if Padmé had captured the viceroy.

As we walked through another long hallway, Annabeth's voice came from my wrist comm, "Please tell me you are not captured, Percy. That the viceroy is just bluffing to stall the negotiations for the new treaty."

I winced, "Can you help?"

"Well at the moment, I'm holding my sword to Nute Gunray's neck, so no, I can't." Styx, I was hoping she could invisibly take out the droids or something.

Riptide appeared back in my pocket. The droid holding the rest of our weapons clearly didn't notice. Guess the Trade Federation didn't make these droids very smart. If only there was a way to get rid of the shield droids. I mean I'd gone toe to toe with gods, Titans, and Giants, but I was captured by a few pieces of scrap metal all because I didn't know how to get past their shields. It also didn't help that I couldn't lift more than a swallow of water right now without keeling over. If Annabeth were here, she would know how to handle the shields. I gripped Riptide in my pocket. I had to do something.

I'm sure whatever I would have done would have been really stupid, but all the droids around us suddenly went limp, including the shield ones.

"The pilots must have managed to destroy the control ship," Kit said as he used the Force to summon his lightsaber back to him.

I quickly picked up my blaster. "Good timing for us."

I raised my wrist comm, "Hope you still have Nut guy at sword point, Wise Girl, because all the droids just went down." I sprinted the rest of the way and reached the throne room door in a few seconds. I tried opening it, but it must have been locked or something. "Can you let us in?"

The door opened, and one of Panaka's men was at the release controls. As I entered the room, I immediately found Annabeth who was pointing her Drakon bone sword right at the crown-hat, fly guy's unprotected chest, her Yankee's cap sticking out of her pocket. There were only a few downed droids in the room. Padmé, Panaka, and the rest of the Security Force were in a loose circle around the Trade Federation leaders holding blasters at them. Annabeth backed away slowly lowering her sword and stood by Padmé. She glanced up at me and flashed a smile. I grinned back. Annabeth was fine. We had survived another impossible battle, and it all would be over soon.

Of course, that's when everything went wrong. Kit tensed up next to me. I looked around but didn't see any danger that could have caused the Jedi's reaction. Suddenly, Annabeth threw herself at Padmé, and both tumbled to the floor just as some metallic blur flew over their heads. I looked up to find where the shot came from. A female figure with pink skin wearing some kind of tight white material and a green hood swung down on a cable right towards Annabeth and Padmé from the vaulted ceiling. As Annabeth rolled on top of Padmé to protect the queen, the assassin fired a small gun and something that wasn't the usual flash of a blaster bolt flew towards Annabeth who was just turning around to face her attacker. Annabeth faltered and slumped over the queen. I shouted and sprinted towards them, Riptide already in my hand somehow. The assassin landed on her feet and turned around to face her target again, raising the gun. Annabeth struggled to sit up and raise her blaster. Before the she could shoot again, the assassin flew back and hit the wall.

"Help them, Percy, I'll stop the bounty hunter," Kit shouted as he ignited his lightsaber from somewhere behind me, no doubt running toward the dazed assassin he had just Force pushed.

I skidded to a stop and collapsed to my knees by Annabeth who had managed to push herself into a sitting position off of Padmé. Panaka quickly helped the queen up, and the Security Force formed a perimeter around us, half their blasters pointed in the direction of the assassin half still on the Trade Federation leaders. I heard a crash of glass and a scream, but all my focus was on Annabeth. Everything else seemed far away and not important. Her hand was shaking badly, but she managed to pull something off of her neck. It dropped to the floor as her body started trembling even worse. It was a metal dart with Annabeth's blood at one end.

"Poison," Annabeth groaned.

Panicking, I ripped open my bag pulling out ambrosia squares and nectar. Annabeth's strength started to fade, and she leaned into me. I fed her the ambrosia. Her hands were shaking too badly. I tried to poor some nectar where the dart had been, but there was no real wound, just a pinprick. If only I paid more attention to first aid class at camp. In between bites of ambrosia, she whispered, "Percy, what do you think will happen to us if we die here?"

My eyes blurred, and I tasted salty water on my lips when I bit them, "No you don't Wise Girl, you are not going anywhere. Don't even think about it." She continued to eat the ambrosia. Only half a square left. Could I give her another one?

Kit sat next to me, carefully picked up the dart, and sniffed it. "Poison dart coated in Sennari," he stated.

I was about to ask what that meant, but the sorrow in his eyes told me enough. "There's an antidote, right?" I asked, desperately latching on to any hope.

"Unfortunately, the victim usually dies before it can take effect," he replied. "It is a miracle she is still alive as it is."

Annabeth finished the ambrosia. It might have been my imagination, but it felt like she was trembling less. "Percy, I love you," she whispered. "Please, promise me that you will keep living, no matter what happens. Please, keep being you. Stay. . . stay good." Her voice was faltering.

"No, Annabeth!" I was shaking worse than her now. "Please," I begged her, the gods, the Force, anything that would listen, "Please, keep fighting. Please, stay alive. I love you too much, Annabeth. She can't die, not after everything."

"Percy," I could hear some of the stubbornness in her voice returning despite how weak she sounded, "Promise me."

"Shh, save your strength, rest," I kissed her temple as I smoothed her hair back. "Keep fighting, and I'll promise."

Padmé suddenly appeared with some sort of futuristic injection gun and a clear vial of liquid. "This is an antidote for most known poisons."

She was about to load the antidote into the injector, but I stopped her. "Wait." I shifted Annabeth, so I could grab the flask of nectar again. "Give me the antidote."

I popped the cap off the vial and poured as much nectar as I could fit in the antidote vial. I figured Annabeth's best shot was if the godly liquid could be injected straight into her body. Hopefully, it would be enough nectar. Hopefully, it wouldn't be too much or interfere with the antidotes or any of the other things that could go terribly wrong. I gave the vial back, and Padmé loaded it into the injection gun. She pressed the end of the barrel at Annabeth's neck and pulled the trigger.

Annabeth collapsed against me, "No! What happened?" I frantically felt for her pulse. It was still there but faint.

"The injection includes a sedative to help the patient recover," Padmé responded calmly though she looked worried. "However, Knight Fisto is correct about this poison. To my limited knowledge, no one has survived." She looked at my desperate face, and her eyes softened. She squeezed my arm, "Don't give up hope though. Just the fact that she is still alive, and we were able to administer the antidote is a good sign that she will pull through." I just nodded and looked back down at Annabeth. At least she had stopped shaking. "Plus, I'm sure her Force-sensitivity will help," she glanced at Kit.

The Jedi nodded, "Yes, I believe her unique constitution may give her an advantage. Also, the medicine you gave her before the antidote seemed to boost her Force presence which will help her body remain strong. All you can do now is let her body and the antidote fight off the poison and trust in the Force."

Kit's somewhat optimistic response helped calm me down, and my brain slowly got out of panic mode. I glanced around the room. The Trade Federation leaders were still there looking scared and muttering quietly to each other. The rest of the handmaidens and Security Force had also joined us. Panaka stood right behind me and gave my shoulder a squeeze. Then, I saw the shattered window and realized the assassin, the person who had poisoned my girlfriend, was gone. I glanced at Kit, "Where is she?" My voice came out flat, emotionless, like the calm before the storm.

Kit grimaced, "She jumped out of the window before I could get to her. I am sorry, Percy." I nodded. Part of me wanted to blame Kit for letting the assassin escape, but I knew it wasn't his fault. I turned towards the Trade Federation leaders. No, it was their fault. All of this was their fault. I'm not sure what I would have done, but I was reaching for Annabeth's Drakon bone sword.

Kit grabbed my hand. "Let go," I snarled.

The Jedi tightened his grip, "Percy, I promise we will get to the bottom of this. We will find the bounty hunter and whoever hired her, but you cannot do this right now. You are too personally connected." I broke his grip, but before I could grab the sword, he said, "Remember what Annabeth said, what you promised."

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. I wanted to make those Trade Federation goons tell me who that bounty hunter was and why she went after Padmé and Annabeth, and I didn't particularly care what I did to get those answers. But, Annabeth wouldn't want me to do that. She wouldn't want me to lose myself. She would expect me to be better. "You should take Annabeth to the medical bay," Padmé suggested softly. "We can monitor her recovery there and give her any additional medicine that she might need."

I nodded, that made sense, and it would actually help her. I gently picked Annabeth up, cradling her in my arms, and Padmé personally lead me to the infirmary with Panaka trailing behind us. Several of those med droids greeted us as soon as we walked through the door. I placed Annabeth on one of the beds while Panaka explained what had happened to one of the droids. Padmé pulled me away, and the other droids closed the curtains around Annabeth's bed. All the anger that I had felt when I realized the bounty hunter had escaped was gone, replaced with numbness. After a few minutes, the droids pulled back the curtains again, and Annabeth was wearing a hospital gown with an IV in her arm and other sensors probably monitoring her heartbeat and stuff.

One of the droids looked at the information on a datapad and said, "The concentration of the poison in the patient's body is still fatal, but that number is dropping. The vitals are also steady."

"Thank you, Two One Bee," Panaka nodded to the droid. Panaka also commed his men and asked for them to locate the head doctor and send him to the palace infirmary.

I pulled up a chair and gently held Annabeth's hand, "Come on, Wise Girl, keep fighting."

Panaka and Padmé had to leave. "I'm sorry Percy, but I need to go," Padmé apologized. "She saved my life, and for that I will always be grateful."

I nodded, "It's okay. She would want you to go take care of the planet."

Padmé smiled softly, "She would want you to take care of yourself too, Percy."

"I'm fine," I muttered. Before he left, Panaka mentioned something about keeping guards by the door.

Eventually, a real live doctor showed up. He looked at the datapad with Annabeth's information and gasped. "How is this possible? With that poison and those amounts a human female should have died within a minute? Are you sure you just administered the standard antidote, young man?"

I forced my gaze away from Annabeth and looked at the doctor. In my dazed state, I struggle to come up with something to tell him besides that I gave my only half human girlfriend some godly food and injected some godly drink directly into her blood stream. "Umm, she's a pretty strong Force-sensitive. Would that make a difference?"

The doctor huffed, "I suppose so. I've heard Jedi have methods of healing themselves with the Force. Could she be doing that?" I just nodded and made a note to ask Obi-Wan about it whenever I saw him. "Well for the moment, all we can do is wait and hope that the poison concentration continues to decrease, and her vitals stay strong. As long as those two things continue to happen, I expect that she could make a full recovery." Somewhere inside of my numbed emotions a spark of hope flared. Maybe she would pull through.

I'm sure the doctor saw the relief in my eyes, as he focused his assessing gaze on me. "You look like you could do with some rest yourself, young man. Perhaps you could just take a nap in the bed next to her."

Despite the man's kind tone, I glared at him. I needed him to understand that I was not moving away from Annabeth's side. The doctor hastily stepped back, "Very well then, I'll be back in a few hours to check on her. The droids will alert me if anything changes."

I went back to just holding Annabeth's hand, but I snapped out of my vigil when Anakin rushed through the door and crushed me in a hug. "I'm so sorry about Annabeth. How is she doing?" Somehow, Anakin managed to get through my numb feeling just a little.

I quietly explained to him everything that had happened. When I got to the point about the rolly droids just collapsing, he grinned and said, "That was me." He quickly told me all about his first time actually flying and how he had destroyed the Droid Control Ship.

I whistled when he was done, "Wow, thanks Ani. If it wasn't for you, I might be dead, or the queen might have been forced to surrender, or Annabeth. . ." I glanced back at my sleeping girlfriend unable to finish that sentence of what might have happened if I wasn't able to get to her in time. "I guess it really was a good thing you pulled a Peter Johnson and snuck out of the Jedi Temple." Anakin fell asleep in my lap not to long after that. I picked him up and tucked him into the nearest bed before returning to Annabeth's side.

More people kept coming in: Kit, Panaka, handmaidens, and the doctor. They all checked on Annabeth, but then they tried to get me to go to sleep or eat and drink. I kept telling them I was fine. It became my automatic reply to everything. The visits blurred together. I stopped paying attention to everything except Annabeth and the datapad displaying her heartbeat and the amount of poison in her body.

Someone must have dropped off both Annabeth's and my bags. The doctor came back and decided to add more antidote to Annabeth's IV. Apparently, she needed a little more to get rid of all the poison, but since this was the first time a patient had survived long enough to actually use the antidote, the doctor was in uncharted territory. After he left, I debated on whether or not I should try giving her more nectar. It could help, but it could also cause her to spontaneously combust. I wasn't sure if injecting it made the godly drink more potent for demigods or not. I decided to only give her more if her vitals changed for the worse.

I'm not sure how long I sat there, but eventually, I heard Obi-Wan's voice say, "Percy?"

It sounded strained, but I still replied with the automatic, "I'm fine."

He sighed, "No, you are not." Before my tired brain could figure out what was happening, I felt something cold on my neck, and then I felt nothing.

 **Author's Note: There's one more chapter planned to wrap up Episode 1. I'll try to get it up in two weeks or so.**


	23. I Inherit a Lightsaber

**Thanks as always for all of the reviews, favorites, and follows. I had hoped that this would be the last chapter of Episode I, but unfortunately the chapter got very long (partially why this update is so late), so I ended up just splitting it up since I didn't have the heart to cut anything out. Maybe y'all could help and let me know if something seemed particularly boring/useless. Good news is that the next chapter is mostly written already, so the wait should be less than two weeks.**

Chapter 23: I Inherit a Lightsaber

I woke up slowly, trying to remember where I was. The room was too white, and I smelled that too clean smell that I associated with school required service trips to hospitals and nursing homes. Hospitals, poison – "Annabeth!" I sat up too quickly, and the world spun. I fought through the feeling and tried to stand, so I could reach Annabeth in the bed next to mine.

Before I could fall on my face, someone caught me and pushed me into a chair by the bed. "Take it easy, Percy," Panaka said. "You should let your body adjust to being awake first."

I barely spared the captain a glance before, I focused on Annabeth. She was still lying there hooked up to an IV and not moving even when I grasped her hand. "Is she. . ." I couldn't even finish the sentence.

Panaka sighed, "She is fine. All the poison is gone, and she is stable. However, the doctors want to keep her asleep until tomorrow to give her body time to recover."

I'm pretty sure I made an extremely manly sound between a sob and a sigh. I leaned over and kissed her forehead. "Way to fight, Wise Girl," I muttered.

"The doctors are calling it a medical miracle and were pestering the Jedi about Force healing trances and if it could be mimicked in non-Force sensitives. I don't suppose you know anything about that?"

I smiled. It was a lot easier now that I knew Annabeth would be okay. "Well, it's not like I could tell the doctor I gave her the food and drink of the gods."

"So that was the liquid you mixed with the antidote?"

I nodded, "It can help heal half-bloods from most wounds and poisons, but we can only have a little bit at a time otherwise it will literally burn us up." I looked around the room and actually saw the rest of it. Anakin was sleeping in another bed nearby, and Panaka was in a chair next to me. He looked tired, but also relieved. "Is Anakin okay?"

Panaka nodded, "The boy is fine. He just insisted on sleeping in the hospital until you and Annabeth left even though the queen did offer him one of the best suites in the palace."

"Silly kid, he should have taken the deluxe suite."

Panaka just raised his eyebrows and looked at me as if to say, 'You're one to talk.'

Just then, my stomach gave a loud growl, and I realized I had no idea how long it had been since I ate last. Panaka gave me a trey filled with food and a glass of water. I quickly downed the water and shoveled the food into my mouth. Panaka chuckled, "It is good to see your appetite has returned. I was beginning to get worried when you kept refusing to eat."

In between bites, I managed to get out, "What time is it? How long have I been out?"

"It is about 4 hours till midnight the day after the battle. I believe you have been sleeping for about 22 hours."

I dropped my fork in shock, "A whole day! I've been out for a whole day!"

Panaka sighed, "You clearly needed to rest, but you were not allowing yourself to sleep." Then he smiled, "I am not sure what you did to the doctors because they were too afraid to approach you, so Obi-Wan volunteered."

I muttered some Arion inspired comments in ancient Greek about a certain Jedi before asking, "So, what has been going on the past day?"

Panaka quickly explained how the rest of the battle ended. The Gungan army had experienced minimal casualties and had taken care of most of the droids even before Anakin blew up the control ship. However, the Jedi were not so lucky in their fight against Darth Maul. Qui-Gon died, and Obi-Wan was barely able to kill the Sith.

I couldn't believe that Qui-Gon was dead. He just always seemed so wise and strong, like he would be giving annoyingly cryptic answers for the next hundred years even if he wasn't immortal like Chiron. He was a really good man, despite all of the bad Jedi traditions, and he was the first person in this universe to really accept Annabeth and me for who we truly were. Even though I had only known him for a few weeks, it felt like I had known him for years. Qui-Gon had become one of the few friends I had in this universe, and now suddenly, he was gone. Unfortunately, the pain of losing a friend was one I had become familiar with over the past few years, but it never seemed to get easier.

No matter how painful and shocking Qui-Gon's death was for me, I knew it must be a hundred times worse for Obi-Wan. Even though Obi-Wan might claim to have no attachments, I knew he cared very much for Qui-Gon. After all, the man was the closest thing he had to a father. I squeezed Annabeth's hand, just grateful that she was still in my life. I remembered Obi-Wan coming in the previous night. He had probably needed a friend then, but I had been to absorbed in my own problems to even realize that he was hurting.

Panaka gave me a moment to try to come to grips with the depressing news before continuing his update. All the Trade Federation members were locked in one of the wings of the palace under heavy guards. The queen had spent the past day and a half getting her people out of the prison camps and back to their homes. For the most part the citizens were okay, a little rattled and underfed, but it could have been a lot worse all things considered. The communication block had been removed, and everyone was just trying to repair all the damage that the Trade Federation had caused, both the Naboo and Gungans actually working together for a change.

"By the way, I noticed a new water feature in the Great Grass Plains, right where the battle took place," Panaka added with a meaningful look at me. "I reassured everyone that it must have been a rather large explosion caused by a combination of the Trade Federation's and Gungans' weapons during the battle. At least it explains the shake everyone felt."

I bit my lip, "Was anyone hurt from it? I didn't cause an earthquake somehow did I?"

"No, we just felt a slight tremor. It didn't even affect any structures as far as I am aware."

I let out a breath I hadn't realized I'd been holding, "Good, I'm not sure Annabeth would have forgiven me if even one of Naboo's great architectural monuments was damaged." I smiled at my girlfriend and wished she was awake right now. Then, I remembered why she was lying there, and I wasn't smiling anymore. "What about the bounty hunter?"

"According to the viceroy, the bounty hunter was sent by a concerned investor as additional security," Panaka stated.

I snorted, "That seems like a fancy way of saying evil, Sith mastermind."

Panaka nodded his head in agreement. "The Jedi Council thought so as well. They sent Knight Fisto to track her down since she is the best lead they have to find the Sith Master, now that the apprentice is dead. Knight Fisto left last night, so hopefully, he will be able to catch up to her before the trail goes cold."

"Well, at least someone is looking for her, and I guess a Jedi would have better luck tracking her down than most people," I muttered.

"I am sure Knight Fisto will find her soon, and she will face justice," Panaka said sternly. Then, he gave me one of those deep penetrating looks, "I know you and Annabeth never wanted to be here, and I am sorry you had to participate in another conflict after your previous campaigns. However, I am grateful that you did come. I know without you two, many more people would have died." He looked at Annabeth and smiled, "We did not lose a single member of our team yesterday, because before a droid could shoot a killing shot, she would push our men out of the way or destroy the droid. As a captain, I am indebted to both of you for your part in saving my planet and queen–"

I interrupted him before he could continue, "No Panaka, you don't owe us anything. As long as we are stuck in this universe, Naboo is our home too, and we will defend it. So, you can quite with all the formal thank yous."

He chuckled, "Well then, I guess I should warn you that the queen has commissioned a special ceremony to formally thank you and Annabeth and plans to give you quite a large amount of credits as a reward for going far above and beyond your civil duty."

I gulped, "Umm, that's really unnecessary. We don't need any of that."

He gave me a smile that reminded me a bit of Lupa's, "I will leave it to you to convince the queen of that. When it comes to a battle of stubbornness between, you, Queen Amidala, and Annabeth, I am not sure who I would bet on."

I grumbled something about disappearing underwater for a few weeks. "On a less formal note," Panaka continued, "I know I am not one of your parents, but I am still extremely proud of everything you and Annabeth have accomplished since landing here. I think part of me did not want to accept your heritage, but after seeing what you did on the battlefield. . ." He paused and shook his head. "Let's just say if anyone has the power to crack open the ground, I am glad it is you. I will say it again: you are a good man, Percy Jackson. I hope you stay that way."

I nodded, but I couldn't meet his eyes. I'm not sure what I would have done if Annabeth had died. Would I have become evil like the Jedi thought I would in my quest to avenge her? I knew I would have gone after the ones responsible without mercy. A small part of me still wanted to. Maybe, the Jedi were right to worry about me.

Panaka seemed oblivious to my doubts, and just clapped me on the back, "I should return to the queen's detail now. I just wanted to check on the both of you. I do not suppose there is any chance you will go back to sleep? The doctor said you needed to rest for at least 30 hours."

I shook me head. "Nope, not a chance." Panaka just sighed and stood up, but before he could leave, I asked, "How's Obi-Wan?"

Panaka grimaced, "He gave his report to the Jedi High Council over hologram yesterday evening, and no one has seen him since he helped you sleep. He probably just needs time. I am sure he will be here when the Jedi Council and Senator Palpatine arrive in two days."

I waited a few minutes after Panaka left before I kissed Annabeth's forehead, whispered, "I will be back," and left the infirmary to find Obi-Wan. I knew everyone dealt with grief differently, but I figured after over 20 hours of being by himself, Obi-Wan could use a reminder that he wasn't alone in the universe even if his master/mentor/father was no longer here.

The only problem was I had no idea where to actually find Obi-Wan. I wandered the empty, echoing halls of the palace as I tried to think where Obi-Wan would be this late at night. Based on what Panaka said, I doubted he was sleeping in one of the rooms. Knowing Obi-Wan, he was probably somewhere quite trying to meditate. I started heading to where I thought the library was, but then I remembered the Room of a Thousand Fountains from Anakin's description of the Jedi Temple. Maybe, he would have tried to find something similar to that since Anakin had said a lot of Jedi liked to meditate there. I changed directions and headed towards the gardens. Luckily, I remembered where they were from my tour because they had a pretty neat pool and a stream with a bridge.

Even at night, the gardens were beautiful with little lights making it look like something out of a fairytale. I saw Obi-Wan sitting along the bank of the stream, so I joined him. He had his eyes closed and back straight, but he didn't seem calm or serene like he normally did when he meditated.

I took off my shoes, rolled up my pants, and stuck my feet in the stream. Sure, I could have left them on with my amazing drying abilities, but there was something so refreshing, just having your feet in cool water. I knew Obi-Wan would talk when he was ready. In the meantime, I waited and looked at the stars that were slowly becoming more familiar.

Eventually, Obi-Wan broke the silence, "How do you feel?" His voice sounded raw, like he hadn't used it in a while.

I quickly glanced at him before I answered. He looked terrible with dark circles under his very bloodshot eyes, and I could see faded bruises on his face. I'm sure he must have been using that Force healing otherwise they would have been worse. After all, I knew firsthand how hard that Darth Maul guy could kick. There was also a sort of desperation in Obi-Wan's eyes that worried me.

I took stock of my own body's aches that I had been ignoring until then. The water was helping, but there was a throbbing pain in my head while the rest of my body felt like Hannibal the elephant had trampled me. Basically, how I normally felt after surviving an impossible battle. "Probably a bit better than how you look," I replied.

Obi-Wan tried to smile, but it looked more like a grimace. "Kit said you over taxed your Force usage. I know from experience that is a particularly unpleasant feeling, assuming it is similar for half-bloods as it is for Jedi."

I shrugged, "Yeah, I guess cracking open the earth and making a tidal wave are my limits. Good to know. I don't usually use my powers like that. Maybe a mini-hurricane or a big wave here or there, but not something that big."

"I'm not sure if that is necessarily your limit, Percy," Obi-Wan stated. For a moment, his voice didn't sound as tired, like he was glad for the distraction from his own troubles. "For Jedi at least, the Force is limitless, but the mental strain of harnessing it is not. Therefore, with time and training our mental capacity to use the Force can increase just like exercising a physical muscle, but if we strain or overuse that mental muscle, we feel drained and can get a rather nasty headache."

My head gave a particularly painful throb. "Yeah, that's pretty much how I feel right now." I massaged me temples as I tried to make sense of what Obi-Wan had said. "But, if I have my own sort of personal Force source wouldn't that have a limit?"

"I suppose so," Obi-Wan answered hesitantly, like he was tempted to say more, but thought better about it. "However, you will have to do further training to find out where that is."

I nodded not exactly happy that I could have even more destructive power at my fingertips. Curios if I would even be able to do it, I focused on the water in the stream and forced some of it to rise and form a ball. It wasn't easy, but it didn't hurt as much as it would have yesterday.

"You really should let yourself rest more," Obi-Wan cautioned with a hint of exasperation in his voice. "You were supposed to stay asleep until tomorrow morning, but I guess your particular heritage decreased the efficiency of the drug. I would have preferred to use the Force to sedate you, but I was unsure if it would work at all."

I glared at him, "You still shouldn't have tranqed me."

He looked straight at me with a hint of his annoying smirk, "What else were we supposed to do? It was past midnight, and you refused to sleep on your own. Plus, you managed to intimidate the doctors so much that they didn't want to go near you."

I rolled my eyes but before I could say anything, Obi-Wan shrugged, "Besides, you really did need the sleep."

I raised an eyebrow in challenge, "Looks like you do too. Maybe, I should tranq you."

"I have slept," he mumbled. When I glared at him some more, he added, "Some. How is Annabeth's condition?" He quickly changed the topic.

I grinned, "Poison free, should wake up tomorrow!"

Obi-Wan managed a small smile, "Good, I am glad that she will pull through."

An awkward silence spread between us as we both remembered why we were out there and who hadn't pulled through. Obi-Wan reached for something on his belt and pulled out a lightsaber. Maybe, he wanted to spar? But, then he extended the hilt to me, and I recognized it as Qui-Gon's. "Here," Obi-Wan said. "He wanted you to have it."

I shook my head, "No, I can't take it. You should keep it."

He sighed, "Percy, just take it please. It was one of Qui-Gon's last request. He said you would need it. Besides, I think he liked the idea that it would be used to free slaves instead of just lying around at the Jedi Temple, collecting dust."

Well, when he put it like that, I really couldn't refuse, and Qui-Gon was right. I needed a weapon that wouldn't just pass through non-Force-sensitives. I reached out and respectfully took the offered hilt. "Thank you, I promise to use it in a way that will honor his memory." Obi-Wan just bowed his head slightly in acknowledgement. I started wondering what exactly Qui-Gon had done with his last moments if he had bothered to make requests for his lightsaber. I had a sneaking suspicion though of what he might not have said. "I hope you know Obi-Wan, that no matter what he told you in the end, Qui-Gon loved you. You were like a son to him."

Obi-Wan scoffed, "Masters and Padawans do not form that sort of attachment. It is a relationship to share knowledge and experience only."

"Please, if any Jedi actually believes that they are kidding themselves. Hades, what do I know maybe some can pull it off, but Qui-Gon loved you. Look, it's not like I have a normal relationship with my father, but I can count on one hand the number of times he has looked at me like the way Qui-Gon looked at you after a sparing session, or when you said something particularly wise, or when you stood up to the Council. And, if your honest about it, that's probably why you are having such a hard time now. I know if Qui-Gon was anything like my mentor, he would be giving instructions till his dying breath instead of saying how he felt. But, they would probably be instructions to help you in the long run."

I remembered when the gods had forced Chiron to leave camp because they thought he had poisoned Thalia's tree. He had spent his last moments telling me not to do anything stupid and tasked a crying Annabeth to watch over me. I know now that he had wanted to give her something to focus on besides his banishment, and he also probably knew I wouldn't listen to him and would do something stupid and need Annabeth.

Obi-Wan laughed at that. It was a bitter laugh. Not at all like the quite chuckle I was familiar with the few times he had laughed around me. "There is no way his last request will help me." He sighed and ran his fingers through the top of his short hair-do. "But, it does not matter. I will do it any way. . . somehow."

"What did he ask you to do?"

He tilted his head and looked at me for a few seconds. I was beginning to think he wasn't going to answer when he said, "You are probably not going to like it, so please refrain from shouting. I would rather not quarrel at the moment."

I nodded. "Thanks for the warning. I'll try not to explode any toilets though I probably couldn't manage that at the moment anyways."

Obi-Wan shifted his gaze across the creek though I had a feeling he was not looking at the garden, "With his dying breath, he had me promise to train Anakin."

I'm not sure what I was expecting, but it wasn't that. "Oh," I said a little numbly. I guess I hadn't processed yet what Qui-Gon's death might mean for Anakin's future.

"Even with a normal initiative, most Jedi wait a few years after achieving knighthood before they take a Padawan, and technically, I am still a Padawan myself at the moment." He continued, "And Anakin. . ."

"Is not your typical initiative," I finished for him. He nodded. "Is Anakin still in the Order after he ran away or did the Council kick him out?"

Obi-Wan grimaced, "At the moment, they seem undecided. Master Windu says by running away, Anakin shows that he cannot be trained as a Jedi because he lacks the discipline and sense of duty the Order instills in its initiatives at an early age. He doubts that Anakin will ever learn this. Many of the other masters agree. They do not take running away from the Temple lightly since it is analogous to turning your back on the Order and abandoning your duty."

I snorted, "He was just a kid who had been there for one day. Surely, they don't expect him to know all the rules. Besides, we would all probably be dead if he hadn't blown up that ship." Even though I still personally didn't want Anakin to be a Jedi, I really didn't like the Council's reasoning for kicking him out.

Obi-Wan nodded, "I made a similar statement at the end of my report. I tried to argue that clearly it was the Force's will for Anakin to be on Naboo, and it is a Jedi's first duty to be an instrument of the Force." He shrugged, "I think I might have convinced some of the masters, but they decided to meditate on the issue and pass judgment when they arrive."

"What happens if they don't let him back into the Order?"

Obi-Wan's usually perfect posture slumped. He looked like a defeated man. "Then, I leave the Order and train him anyways."

"You would do that?" Even though I had only spent a few weeks with Obi-Wan, I knew that the Jedi Order was his life.

"I made a promise to my Master," he said grimily. "And, like someone else I know," he gave me a pointed look, "I take my promises very seriously. Qui-Gon would not have asked unless he was sure that Anakin is the Chosen One, destined to bring balance to the Force, so I will keep me word no matter what. But, if it does come to me leaving the Jedi Order," he winced even as he said that, "I am not sure what I will do. . ." his voice faltered for a moment. "The Jedi Order is all I have ever known. They have always provided food and shelter and clothes and equipment and a purpose. Sure, sometimes it was hard during a mission, but usually, you just had to find someone supportive of the Republic, and they would open their doors for you. Without the support of the Jedi Order, how am I going to survive and take care of a boy?"

Obi-Wan sounded so lost. I realized it was a testament to our friendship that he even admitted that to me. At that moment, I'm not sure who I was more mad at, the Jedi Order that made their members completely depended on it so that the Council could use the threat of expulsion to keep their members in line or for Qui-Gon asking Obi-Wan to possibly leave everything he had ever known. "You know after you helped save the planet and all, I'm sure the queen would be more than happy to have you and Anakin live here." I grinned, "Panaka definitely would be very happy to have a Jedi protecting the monarch fulltime."

"Yes, we could," Obi-Wan agreed, "but I am not sure that would be the best for Anakin's training with you and his mother so close."

"Oh, right that no attachment stuff," I muttered. When I thought Annabeth was dying, I knew I would have torn down cities to make the Sith and that bounty hunter pay. Now, I don't think cutting yourself off from people was the best way to handle it, but maybe the Jedi did have a bit of a point.

"Maybe, Anakin would do better in an environment with his attachments?" Obi-Wan wondered, "Since he already has them and has been exposed to strong emotions, I just do not know. Perhaps Qui-Gon was right, and there is another way. I mean you and Annabeth are not dark side users. But, if we do leave the Jedi Order, I will be cut off from the wisdom and advice of my peers." Obi-Wan sighed, "I just wish I knew what to do. I have tried meditating, but at the moment, it has been rather difficult."

I couldn't imagine having to worry about someone else like that all of a sudden. Obi-Wan wasn't that much older than me, but now he couldn't think what was best for him anymore. He had to think what was best for Anakin. Even though I would miss the kid, it seemed like Obi-Wan would be better if he stayed in the Jedi Order. Maybe, Anakin would too with a whole community of Jedi to help him learn all this Force stuff. Sure, there were some stiff Jedi like Windu and Mundi, but Kit was pretty cool. "Is there anything I could do to help convince the Jedi Council to accept Anakin again?"

Obi-Wan actually chuckled, "Frankly, most of the Jedi Council consider you dangerous and unstable, so you should probably try to avoid the issue because it might actually hurt Anakin's case. Though, I am sure they will want to talk to you about what you did on the battlefield. That new water stream is not exactly subtle, and any Force sensitive can feel the echo of the power you used to form it, probably for the next week or so."

"Great," I mumbled, "I just love council meetings! I wonder how many threats I can get in this one." Obi-Wan gave me a stern look, "Okay, okay, I'll be on my best behavior for yours and Anakin's sakes."

"Perhaps, this personal loyalty isn't necessarily all bad if it can make you behave respectfully in a council meeting."

"Hey," I complained, "using fatal flaws is so against the Bro Code, not cool."

He smirked, "Well, I've got to use something since you seem to have no sense of self-preservation and a penchant for insulting powerful people. Plus, I am hoping in this case at least, it will bring out the best in you."

* * *

I stayed up with Obi-Wan for the rest of the night and got back to the medical bay a bit after dawn though Anakin had already left. Annabeth woke up a little later just like Panaka had said. Our happy reunion though was ruined somewhat by a nosy, pushy doctor though at least he did bring in food. He declared that Annabeth had made a full recovery, but that she must stay in the medical bay as a precaution for the remainder of the day. She would be released tomorrow as long as she did not strain herself. He once again tried to quiz us on what could have caused Annabeth's miraculous recovery, but Annabeth just gave him a shrug and said with a straight face, "The Force is all powerful." The doctor frowned in annoyance and left with a dramatic huff, muttering about mystic cosmic energy.

I spent the rest of the morning telling Annabeth everything that had happened while we ate. Her eyes teared up when I told her about Qui-Gon. I scooted over onto the narrow hospital bed and wrapped my arms around her trying to offer her some silent comfort. We just sat there for a moment remembering the kind Jedi who had helped us so much. Eventually, though I asked something that had been bugging me since I woke up. "So, the Sith Master sent the bounty hunter, right?"

Annabeth nodded, "He must have."

"But why? I thought he was trying to get Queen Amidala to sign the treaty?"

Annabeth bit her lip as she thought, "I think it must have been his back up plan, in case we managed to beat the Trade Federation and Maul. If he couldn't get the Trade Federation to actually, legally seize the planet, then assassinating Queen Amidala would have been the next best thing. It probably would have started a galactic civil war between the Core worlds and the Outer Rim with the Mid Rim split down the middle which would definitely destabilize the Republic. Plus, if we are right about his plans for Palpatine, it would have turned Amidala into a beloved martyr, so at the very least the Naboo senator would be the next chancellor without much contest."

"I guess that makes sense," I hesitated for a moment. "So, you think this bounty hunter was just after the queen then, and only got you because you tried to protect her?" I tried to hide the hope in my voice. I really didn't like the idea that this Sith Master might have been targeting my girlfriend.

She sighed, "I don't know Percy, and I don't think we will know for sure until Kit catches the bounty hunter. I mean it looks like Amidala was the target, but. . . if my theories are right and if I was the Sith and I had heard what I had said in the senator's office from a bug or a spy, then I would want me out of the way too though it would have to look like an accident. Otherwise, people would know my theories are right."

"Ugh, this is getting pretty confusing."

She nodded, "If that really was this Sith Lord's intention than he's a really good strategist, like Kronos good."

"Well at least we're on to him, whoever he is. We always were a step behind Kronos." At this point I was just trying to find the silver lining.

Annabeth frowned, "For now at least, I think we might have won this round, but that's because we probably took him by surprise. I don't think we will have that advantage for the next round. He definitely knows about you."

"Maybe, Kit will find the bounty hunter, and the Jedi will be able to get rid of this Sith guy. Then, we can go home and live happily. . . ever. . . after." A huge yawn interrupted my fairy tale ending.

"We can hope for that," Annabeth said with a smile. "But, right now you look like you could use some sleep."

"Maybe, a little," I mumbled as I staggered to the narrow bed next to hers. I hadn't slept at all during the night, and I was feeling kind of tired. "Just a short power nap."

* * *

I'm not sure how long I slept, but my beauty sleep was rudely interrupted by an argument going on around Annabeth's bed. Annabeth and Padmé were in a staring contest, Panaka looked amused, and Anakin was giggling.

"I am being ridiculous!" Padmé exclaimed in a mocking tone, "You are the one who almost died two days ago saving my life. I cannot in good conscious allow you to work when you should be resting."

"Ugh, please tell me this is a dream," I muttered. If this really was an Annabeth vs Padmé showdown, I wanted to be safely behind a bullet proof window and then sell tickets to the event, not stuck in the middle of it.

"Sorry to wake you Percy," Padmé apologized, "but Annabeth is being irrationally stubborn."

"Percy, tell Padmé I'm perfectly capable of helping with the recovery effort from this room," Annabeth gave me a rather impressive glare that told me I better agree with her.

I gulped, "Umm, sure?" The word ended an octave higher, so it sounded like a question. Personally, I thought it would be better if Annabeth rested more, but I knew better than trying to tell her that. Angry girlfriends were scary.

Annabeth rolled her eyes at me, before returning to the argument, "Honestly, Padmé I don't even have to leave the bed." She picked up her laptop from the bedside table and started typing furiously. "There, I'm already collecting all the information from the damage reports and creating an algorithm to determine what materials are needed, where, and the priority. It's not like I have anything else to do while I'm stuck in here, and I need something to distract me."

Padmé looked like she was going to argue back, but then she let out a long sigh, "Fine, we really could use that information, but please do not push yourself too hard." Annabeth nodded in agreement. Padmé excused herself to probably do important planet ruling things, and Panaka followed her out giving me a small nod.

"Thanks, for the overwhelming support, Seaweed Brain," Annabeth said.

I smirked at her, "Since when have you ever needed my help winning an argument?"

"Speaking about winning arguments while you were sleeping, I did win another argument and convinced Padmé to cancel our award ceremony," Annabeth informed me.

"Oh Good!"

"That would have drawn way too much attention to us," Annabeth continued, "but I did graciously accept the monetary award."

I grimaced. It just felt weird getting rewarded for something any decent person would have done anyways. "Why? We don't need to take Naboo's money. I'm sure Padmé could put it to better use somewhere else."

"Actually, we do. We will need a lot of money to fund your free the slaves venture, and this allows Padmé to help finance it without having to openly support us in a way that could cause the Hutts to target Naboo. That's why she's giving us so much. Hopefully, with proper investment it will be enough."

"Oh, I didn't think of that."

"Of course not, that's what you've got me for," she said with a beautiful smile that made her grey eyes light up.

I think my brain might have malfunctioned for a few seconds or something just looking at Annabeth because the next thing I knew she was blushing, and Anakin made an awkward coughing noise, "I guess I'll be going then."

I shook my head and snapped out of the trance, "No, it's okay Anakin. You should stay." It might have been selfish of me, but I wanted to spend as much time as I could with the boy. After explaining everything to Annabeth earlier, she had agreed that since we knew very little about actually using this Force like the Jedi, Anakin should return to the Temple as long as that's what he wanted. That way both he and Obi-Wan would have the support they needed from others like them. If the Council did try to kick Anakin out, I was going to change their mind, somehow. I did have a crazy idea that probably would work despite or maybe because of what Obi-Wan had told me when he warned me to not interfere. I just really hoped it wouldn't come to it.

The three of us spent the rest of the day together. Anakin taught us Sabaac with a deck he found in a drawer. When Annabeth returned to her work, I pushed some of the extra beds away to make space, so I could teach Anakin the very basics of fighting, like balance, footwork, and self-defense. But mainly, I just told him all the Greek myths I could think of. Maybe, I was being lame, but almost all of the Greek myths had important lessons in them. As half-bloods, these morals were super important if we wanted even a shot at avoiding the tragic fate of the ancient heroes that came before us. I figure maybe some of these lessons might help Anakin as he developed his Jedi powers. In a way, the old myths were sort of like a half-blood version of that Jedi Code Obi-Wan kept mentioning, though ours was clearly way cooler, more flexible, and more memorable.

I mean sure, it's one thing to tell kids that excessive pride is bad as one of many rules for them to memorize. It's another thing entirely to spend at least 30 minutes getting attached to characters only for them to die horrible deaths because of their pride. Getting fried by a bolt of lightning while driving a fancy vehicle, we've got that as well as plummeting to your death off of a winged horse. Or, maybe, being the greatest warrior in the world and dying from an ankle injury is easier for you to remember, and how could I forget getting turned into a hideous creepy crawly.

By the time I had finished almost every Greek myth I could think of, Annabeth had fallen asleep, but Anakin was still awake. By now, I knew that meant one thing - he had questions. "Percy, with Qui-Gon gone, what's going to happen to me?"

"Well, Obi-Wan promised to train you," I answered figuring the Jedi hadn't told him yet.

"But, since I ran away from the Temple, what if the Council doesn't accept me back?"

"Obi-Wan said he would train you anyways even though he would have to leave the Order. If you had a choice, though, would you want to go back to the temple or maybe, Obi-Wan could train you here?" I asked a little hopeful.

He thought about it a while before responding, "Naboo is really nice and all. And, it would be fun to be around you, Annabeth, mom, and Padmé, but I wouldn't be a real Jedi would I? If I didn't go back to the temple, it would never be official."

I shrugged even though he couldn't see me, "I suppose that's true."

"Then, I think. . .I think I would rather go back. It felt nice being there, like I finally found a place for people like me. I guess kind of like how you felt when you found Camp Half-Blood."

"Okay, then, I'll do everything I can to convince the Council to take you back. But, just be careful Ani. Some of the other kids might not be nice to you since you're coming in late, and you're sort of a big hero right now."

"You mean like how Clarisse tried to dunk your head in a toilet because you killed the Minitour?"

"Yeah, kind of like that," I said with a laugh. "Though I expect Jedi initiatives are more subtle than children of Ares."

"Percy?"

"Hmm?"

"I had a question for Master Qui-Gon, but I never got a chance to ask it. And, Jedi Obi-Wan hasn't been around, but maybe you know," Anakin rambled. "Um, Master Qui-Gon said I was the Chosen One when the Council was deciding to let me join the Jedi Order. What did he mean by that?"

I sighed. I really had hoped that Anakin didn't know about Qui-Gon's suspicions yet. Ignorance was bliss when it came to prophecies. It was a lot to place on the shoulders of a nine-year-old, and Qui-Gon might not be right. "Well, on Tatooine, Qui-Gon told Annabeth and I about this very vague prophecy that a powerful Force-sensitive was destined to bring balance to the Force and destroy the Sith. He must have thought this was you."

"Oh," Anakin sounded shocked and overwhelmed. It isn't everyday that you learn you have some great destiny.

"Just remember, Ani, prophecies are really tricky. But, after all the prophecies I've dealt with, I've come up with rules to help survive them. I call these rules the Jackson Three (if only I came up with two more). One, prophecies can never be completely avoided. Two, there is always some sort of twist in the words so that it never occurs as you expect it to which is bad for this prophecy because Qui-Gon said the exact words have been lost, and he's just going off of someone else's interpretation. And, three, you can't really force a prophecy to happen just because you want it to or it's convenient," I remembered Michael Varus and the doomed fifth cohort.

"When a prophecy it happening you just sort of know." I continued. "But, I hope for your sake that you aren't this Chosen One because being the 'one' in a prophecy is never an easy fate. It doesn't really mean that you're better than others, or that you're special necessarily. It's more like the universe is pulling a joke on you to make your life extra difficult. So, if there even is a chance that you are this Chosen One, then you better train extra hard because you're going to need it."

"I guess those rules make sense after listening to all of your prophecies," he mumbled. "I just hope I'll be good enough if it is me."

"Try not to stress too much about it," I advised. "That really is the curse of prophecies. Just focus on being the best Jedi you can be, and I'm sure it will all work out. Maybe, you could knock some sense into the Jedi Order while you're at it. I think they need to be reminded how people in the rest of the galaxy actually live."

 **Author's Note: Yes, Qui-Gon still died. I did go back and forth for a while until I came up with the scene with the lightsaber, and I knew it wouldn't have the same meaning if Qui-Gon was still alive. Hope this chapter wasn't too boring since it mainly sets things up for the last chapter of Episode 1 which will be much better. I've had the end of it planned since I first came up with the idea for this story, and I can't wait to see what y'all think.**


	24. Goodbyes Suck

**Thanks as always for all of the reviews, favorites, and follows. I hope y'all don't mind the extra long chapter, but I wasn't going to split it up and drag Episode I out any longer. There's also an extra long Author's Note at the end explaining my plan for the next part of the story. _This is also the second version of this chapter posted because I am struggling with the ending, so only the last portion was changed. Please let me know what you think._**

Chapter 24: Goodbyes Suck (2nd version)

I wanted to skip the whole welcoming committee thing since I wasn't exactly happy to see Senator Palpatine or the Jedi Council again, but Annabeth pointed out that I would also miss the official arrest of the viceroy and his sidekick. After everything those slime balls had done, there was no way I was missing that. It was definitely worth it to hear Panaka make a snarky comment to the bad guys about kissing their trade franchise goodbye as he led them away. I guess I was finally rubbing off on the guy. Senator Palpatine barely spared Annabeth and I a glance before he started congratulating Obi-Wan and Anakin and sucking up to the queen and praising her for saving the planet. To be fair, we were trying to keep our contributions quiet, but I'm sure he would find out about Annabeth saving the queen soon.

It turns out it wasn't just the senator and the Jedi Council on the shuttle because Shmi Skywalker was in the senator's entourage. Anakin was about to run to her, but Annabeth gripped his shoulder, "Not now, Ani. Not with the Jedi around if you still want to go back to the Temple for training." His shoulders slumped. "Just wait until the Jedi are gone, and then you can tell her about everything." He nodded, and Annabeth let go of him.

"Thanks" Obi-Wan muttered. "The Council would not have appreciated that display of affection, and it will be hard to convince them as is."

I rolled my eyes, what a crime to actually show emotion and love for your own mother. Next, nine members of the Jedi Council stepped off the ramp. "I wasn't expecting so many to come," I whispered to Obi-Wan.

He smiled softly, "They have come to honor Qui-Gon. Although he often disagreed with the Council, he still commanded their respect."

I recognized Master Gallia who gave me a small smile as well as Yoda, Mundi, and Windu though when he looked in my direction his expression was far less friendly. I knew I probably shouldn't antagonize the Jedi, but I couldn't help raising an eyebrow and smirking at him until Annabeth elbowed me hard in the ribs, "Really, Seaweed Brain, is that necessary?" she hissed.

I shrugged and whispered back, "He makes it too easy."

* * *

It was several hours before the Jedi Council sent a palace aid to bring Annabeth and me to the Council's temporary meeting place in one of the palace's many tower rooms. As we entered the room, Obi-Wan said, "Masters, we have yet to discuss–"

"That issue can wait a little longer, Knight Kenobi," Windu said as he shifted his intense gaze to Annabeth and me.

"Yes, Masters," Obi-Wan dutifully replied with a small bow though I swore there was a bit of a sigh at the end like the Council was trying even his endless patience.

Before he could leave though, Windu stopped him, "Please stay, if you would Knight Kenobi, we may have need of your . . ." he glanced at me before continuing, "diplomatic skills."

"As you say, Masters." Obi-Wan shot me a look letting me know that he really hoped his 'diplomatic skills' would not be needed.

I just smiled and said, "Congrats on the promotion, Knight Kenobi!"

An awkward silence filled the room. The Jedi were probably trying to use that Force sense on us though I doubt they were any more successful than previous attempts based on how Windu narrowed his eyes. After hanging out with poker-face Obi-Wan for two weeks, I had gotten better at reading the subtle changes in facial expressions. After what felt like forever to an ADHD demigod, I broke the silence. Patience had never been one of my strengths. "So, what do you guys want to talk about? Somehow, I doubt you guys have found a way to get us back home."

"Percy," Obi-Wan whispered my name sounding like a plea and a warning at the same time.

"We were hoping that you could maybe tell us more about this latest dream you had of the Sith," Adi said with a small smile, apparently choosing to ignore my not so subtle dig. "Obi-Wan has told us what you told him, but we were hoping you could provide us with more details."

I blinked in surprise. I hadn't expected them to ask about my dream of all things. "So, you guys actually believe me now and don't think I'm some spy working for the Sith?"

"The past events have proven these dreams accurate, and no matter how erroneous I believe your attachment to the girl is," Mundi said in a grave tone like my relationship with Annabeth was a worse crime than stealing one of Hera's forbidden apples or something, "I do not believe you would have ever done something to willingly harm your companion let alone almost cause her death."

That might have been the one good thing about Annabeth almost dying. Apparently, the Jedi trusted us now. I looked at Annabeth, and she nodded. I guess if they could trust us then we could trust them, so I told them everything I could remember from the dream. They also asked a lot of questions about demigod dreams in general, and Annabeth and I did our best to answer them. Of course, they wanted to know things like how we were using the Force in these visions or what kind of trance could get through the clouded dark side. Even Annabeth could only guess, especially, since she still hadn't dreamed anything herself in this new universe. We just chalked it up to my dad being a big three, and the changeable nature of the sea.

The next topic was a little less friendly, "Between Master Gallia's, Knight Fisto's, and Knight Kenobi's reports and the new branch of the Solleu River, it seems your powers are capable of much more than just moving water, Jackson," Windu said in accusation. "For the safety of the galaxy, we would like to know exactly what you can do."

I was about to say something extremely clever like, 'Guess you will just have to wait and see,' but Annabeth pinched me. We had a silent argument, but she won as usual. For Obi-Wan and Anakin, I reminded myself. "Well, my dad's also known as the Earthshaker and the Stormbringer," I added reluctantly. I didn't really like showing the Jedi all our cards, but Annabeth clearly thought we should tell them this for some reason. "So besides being the god of the sea, he is also the god of storms, earthquakes, droughts, floods, and equine animals. I don't really use those other aspects of my power very often, particularly the earthquake part since it's kind of hard to control that one."

"To what extent can you use this earthquake power?" Windu asked. "How much destruction can you do to a planet?"

I rolled my eyes, "I don't know. Do you want to find out now?"

"What about the sando aqua sea monster?" a female master, whose name I still didn't know asked, clearly trying to diffuse the building tension between Windu and me. "That particular species has been resistant to Force beast control. How did you manage?"

"Oh, Bessie Jr., she's a friend," I said with a shrug. "I can communicate with water creatures though most can't exactly hold a conversation if you know what I mean, but Bessie is pretty intelligent. We used to talk a lot back when I was exploring the planet core. I think she was lonely."

"Interesting, so compel this creature, you did not?" Yoda asked.

"No, I would never," surprised even at the thought of making Bessie do something she didn't want to, "I just asked if she wanted to help. She didn't really like the droids any more than we did, and she really did enjoy smashing them."

"Hmm," Yoda hummed though I could swear there was a smile somewhere on his wrinkled face.

Then I realized something, "Wait, does that mean you guys control animals and make them do things they don't want to? That's so wrong." I started getting angry. "Here, you guys are worrying about what I do with my powers, maybe someone needs to worry about what you do with yours."

I saw a lot of the Council stiffen in their seats at that accusation. Windu just frowned which was probably the Jedi version of being pissed off. "Really, Percy do you think so poorly of us?" Obi-Wan asked, not quite able to hide the hurt in his voice which made me regret the comment just a little. "Beast control or animal bond is not an ability that we use lightly," he explained. "It requires us to form a Force bond with the animal, so we feel what they feel. If absolutely necessary, we will use the Force to suggest commands so that we might have a means of transportation or dissuade them from attacking us."

"Oh, I guess that's not too bad then," I said, feeling ashamed now that I had jumped to the worst conclusion though it wasn't too different from how the Council had treated me.

"Thank you for your honesty, Percy, and for trusting us," Adi said kindly, resetting the tone of the meeting. "I hope that trust will extend to our last question as well. The poison that was used on Annabeth, even a very skilled Jedi Master healer would have had difficulty using the Force to stop such a fast-acting poison, so how did you save her? Knight Fisto mentioned that you fed her something that boosted her Force presence and added a liquid to the antidote injection. Please, your knowledge could help us stop future deaths from that poison."

Annabeth went ahead and took the lead on this one and explained all about nectar and ambrosia and the risk of having too much.

"Do you think Jedi could consume this food?" Windu asked with a hint of curiosity in his voice.

Annabeth shrugged, "I don't know. I mean the Roman Camp doesn't even risk using it for legacies. They use a different healing method. So, I guess the question is, are you similar enough to us that you can consume the food, or are you more similar to mortals? Does the food just require you to be Force-sensitive, like Percy's sword which can also harm legacies, or does it actually require you to have a certain amount of ichor, godly blood? I suppose you could try. If you're wrong though, you most likely will die, so you probably should save it for when you have no other alternative."

"May I examine one please?" Windu asked. Annabeth went ahead and gave him a square from our dwindling supply. He looked at it closely from every angle and even sniffed it before he closed his eyes to no doubt examine it solely using the Force. "Incredible," he declared. The other Jedi were also nodding their heads.

He gave it to Master Yoda who also held it in his hand. "Strange it is. Present the Force is in this substance. But contained, like you two."

"Do you know how this food is made?" Mundi asked.

"No," Annabeth replied a little wistfully. "It is a carefully guarded secret of the gods."

"May we bring this sample to our scientists at the Jedi Temple?" Windu asked. "Perhaps they could develop a method to synthesize more to refill your stock or create a derivative that is safer for our consumption."

Annabeth looked tempted. I'm sure that part of her that always wanted answers would love to know how to make ambrosia. I had to stop her from her own curiosity. "Annabeth, we shouldn't. Remember Tantalus."

That made her bite her lip, "But, this is different. Firstly, there are no gods here to punish us. Secondly, we have no idea how long we may be stuck in this universe, and we have already gone through a third of our supply. We could use more." I could see the moment she made up her mind, "You can take it, just be extra cautious. No one has ever tried to mix technology and ambrosia before. The result could be extremely destructive and dangerous. Percy is right that bad things tend to happen when mortals meddle with the divine."

"I ensure you that we will take every precaution," Windu promised. "Hopefully, this will be beneficial for both of us."

I just hoped Annabeth wouldn't get in serious trouble when we made it back home. The gods really didn't like mortals, even demigods, discovering their secrets. "I believe that is all we have to discuss," Windu said. "On behalf of the whole Jedi Order, I would like to thank you for preventing the loss of additional life and stopping an attempt at a Galactic Civil War. We will keep you updated on any progress we make regarding this ambrosia and a way for you to return home. We will also notify you of any relevant information regarding the bounty hunter and the Sith Master. I hope you will return the favor and inform us of anything you might learn about the Sith from these visions or other means, but I must stress that you should avoid any more direct confrontation with the Sith. Although you have no doubt faced dangerous foes in the past, it would be best if you left the Sith to us."

I looked at Annabeth. This was going to be her call though part of me wanted to pay the Sith Master a little visit after what happened to Annabeth. She was way better dealing with the strategy and politics of crafty enemies and allies. She thought for a moment before nodding in agreement, "We currently have no plans to seek out the Sith despite the assassination attempt, and I don't see why we would try to engage him unless he comes for us."

"I suppose that is an acceptable response," Windu stated. "I trust you are wise enough young lady to avoid leading you and your companion into a trap. The Sith clearly knows about Jackson, and he might try to recruit you or seek revenge by purposely bating you, so be wary. Perhaps it would be best if you remained under the protection of the Jedi in the Temple."

I snorted, "He can try. It wouldn't be the first time an evil lord has tried to get us to join him or kill us. And, we'll pass on letting you keep us under surveillance in the Jedi Temple, thanks."

"Guests you would be, not prisoners," Yoda said.

He sounded sincere. In fact, this whole meeting had gone way better than I thought it would after last time. "Thank you then," I said bowing my head slightly, "I'm sure we will consider it if we are ever in need."

"May the Force be with you," Yoda said, but when neither Annabeth or I moved he asked, "More to say have you?"

I was probably going to ruin whatever fragile alliance Annabeth and I had with the Jedi, but I asked my question anyways. "Yes, what will happen to Anakin now?"

Windu frowned, "I fail to see how that is relevant to you. That is Jedi business."

I glared at him. "He's my friend. And, if you guys do kick him out of your little club and don't train him, then it's not Jedi business anymore," I reasoned.

We had a staring contest before Windu sighed. I guess he decided that it wasn't worth the fight to not tell me. "Despite the Council's initial decision to train him, the boy's actions have proven that he is far too rash to be trained as a Jedi. He clearly lacks obedience and loyalty to the Order. Something I doubt you would ever understand. However, the boy will still be a member of the Order. We have positions for those unsuited to become full Jedi. He will receive a basic training, and then most likely join the Agriculture Corps and provide an invaluable service to the galaxy. He will be well looked after and lead a good fulfilling life. I am sure as his _friend_ and a veteran soldier, you can appreciate the comfort of a safe occupation."

For a moment, I doubted my plan. What if the Council's plan for Anakin was the best? He would be safe and never know the horror of killing and bloodshed that I'm sure even the peaceful Jedi warriors had to experience at some point. Obi-Wan stiffened next to me, though, clearly not liking this career path since it would prevent him from keeping his promise to his dead master. I realized Master Windu was using my fatal flaw to convince me to support the Council's decision which was totally not cool. I hated being manipulated.

I glanced at Annabeth, and she had her jaw clenched stubbornly, which meant that whatever she said next was going to be good though it might get us in even more trouble. "You would really take a former slave boy and force him to work in agriculture?" Annabeth asked. Her light tone somehow made the question extra sarcastic and insulting. Gods, I loved her. Sure, I may be the rash one in the relationship, but when Annabeth decided something was not right, she always took a stand, even if it was against the queen of the gods.

Yoda frowned, "Force, no. Choose his path, young Skywalker will. Many options there are yet."

"Good," I said jumping in at the opening Annabeth had created. "The kid wants to be a Jedi for some strange reason I'll never understand. But, since you won't be training him to be a Jedi, I'm sure he would rather live here on Naboo with his mother given the choice. Annabeth and I can probably manage some training with this Force stuff even if it is a little different for us. At the very least, we can teach him how to fight and find him some cool sword. When the time comes, I know he would be more than happy to help us end slavery on Tatooine. He'd be pretty useful if he turns out to be even half as powerful as Qui-Gon seemed to think he is. Maybe, the kid will even fall in love since he'll be free to have all the attachments he wants. It certainly sounds like a much more exciting life than being some glorified farmer and a monk to boot. Which do you think Anakin would chose given the choice?"

I hated seeing the hurt and betrayal in Obi-Wan's eyes. He was probably shocked by what I'd said and thought I was trying to steal the kid away from him. After a few seconds though, his eyes narrowed in suspicion. Styx, he knew me too well. I just hoped he could keep his suspicions hidden from the prying Council though I suppose at this point it really didn't make a difference. The threat of dangerous me corrupting the boy even more should make them change their minds.

My second least favorite council member, Mundi of the cone-head recovered first, "You cannot take him."

"I agree. Together you three would be far too dangerous," Windu said his frown even more noticeable. "We will not take that risk."

"Well, good luck winning that custody battle," Annabeth said with a smile that would have made me shiver if her steely gaze was aimed at me. Luckily, it was pointed at Windu. "If you do not agree to train Anakin, I'm sure Queen Amidala, herself, will fight to get him back to his mother on Naboo. After all, he just saved her planet, and at the moment, I'm pretty sure the Senate would be willing to give her pretty much anything she asked for. I have a feeling she will be quite popular in galactic politics after this victory. Can the Jedi really afford the spotlight on such a controversial case?"

The Council was clearly stomped as they realized that they truly did not have the power to stop us if we wanted to take Anakin. The silence stretched, and I wondered if the Jedi could have some sort of silent conversation with each other using the Force. Finally, Yoda said, "Trained as a Jedi, young Skywalker will be. Though clouded, his future is."

I smiled glad that my plan had actually worked though I knew I would miss the kid. "However, we do have one condition," Windu warned. "We agree to train the boy as a Jedi, but only if you both," he looked pointedly at me and Annabeth, "promise to let him go, no contact of any kind. You must swear a binding oath like you did on Tatooine. We will not be able to train him as a Jedi if you two keep interfering."

For a second everything froze. I probably should have seen this coming. I had figured I wouldn't see him for a while, but could I really swear on the River Styx to never see Anakin again? Luckily, Annabeth always thought quick on her feet. "That is a difficult promise to make without knowing the future. Who knows what strange events might force Anakin and our paths to accidentally cross again? Would you really go against the will of the Force if it brings us together again and make us suffer a fate worse than death? If we really were sent here to help you guys balance the Force like Master Jinn thought, that could have drastic consequences not just for us."

One silent conversation later Windu said, "If it truly is the will of the Force then we will not fight it, but you will swear to not initiate any contact with the boy. Understood?"

Annabeth looked at me, and I nodded. I would make this sacrifice so that Ani could be in a place where he belonged and have the life he always dreamed about even if it would be dangerous. Plus, Obi-Wan wouldn't be forced to leave his home and family. I knew firsthand how terrible that was. It really was the best solution for both of my friends. "Fine, we will swear on the River Styx as long as you swear a binding oath to train him as well," I told the Jedi. I had been betrayed way too many times, and I did not think the Jedi were above conveniently finding another silly reason to not train him though as long as Obi-Wan was around I didn't think that would happen.

"Trust us, you do not?" Yoda asked.

"No, forgive me if I don't," I replied dryly. "You guys considered arresting me last time. Plus, one of my uncles said you should always get a binding oath." The council agreed to our terms. Annabeth and I swore on the River Styx, and Yoda swore on the Force though he added that Anakin would be treated as any other initiate and have to prove himself worthy to become a full Jedi Knight. At least that's what I thought he meant after I rearranged the words. Annabeth also added a phrase so that the oath didn't start until after Anakin left Naboo. That way, at least we could say goodbye. I looked at Obi-Wan to make sure that the Force had bound everyone to their promises, and he nodded.

Before Annabeth and I could leave the room, Obi-Wan stepped forward. "With the Council's permission, I would like to take Anakin Skywalker as my Padawan, now that he has been reinstated in the Order."

The Council seemed to have another silent conversation before Windu spoke, "The Council agrees. Even though it is unusual for a Knight to take on a Padawan so early, the Council acknowledges that your familiarity with the boy and your tutelage under Master Jinn who had intended to train the boy himself, make you the best master for Skywalker."

"Careful, you must be," Yoda warned with a frown. "Grave danger, I fear in his training."

"Thank you for your trust, Masters," Obi-Wan replied and bowed low. "I will head your warning, Master Yoda."

"May the Force be with you," Windu said, and this time we did not ignore the dismissal.

* * *

Qui-Gon's funeral was later that night, and all the important people from the Naboo government and the Jedi were there. Somehow, I don't think Qui-Gon would have been very impressed with that. But, he would be happy that his funeral caused Boss Nass and Queen Amidala to stand next to each other. Even in death, he somehow managed to break traditions and bring peace. He also would like that Anakin was standing beside Obi-Wan. Part of me wondered if that wise old Jedi had Obi-Wan make that promise because he knew training Ani would help Obi-Wan get over his death more easily even if it might have made his former apprentice homeless.

I was a little surprised by the funeral itself. It was Jedi tradition to build a pyre and cremate the body. All they were missing was a burial shroud, and this could have been a funeral at Camp Half-Blood. As I watched flames consume the body of yet another friend, there was something comforting in the familiar ritual. Like, even though Annabeth and I were in another universe, we were still somehow connected to the people here and the ones we left back at home.

* * *

The next day was a planet wide celebration. I really had been looking forward to it until I saw what a droid had brought in for me to wear. "No, absolutely not," I told it as I searched my borrowed palace bedroom for other clothes that had mysteriously disappeared.

"Sir, you are accompanying the queen at the presentation ceremony. You need to wear formal attire."

I vaguely remembered that Annabeth had mentioned something about being with the queen for the grand finale of the victory parade. Apparently, it had been one of the things Padmé had insisted on to honor us after Annabeth convinced her to cancel our award ceremony. I definitely didn't remember anyone saying I had to wear some freaking Renaissance Fair costume. Until then, I had been doing an excellent job of avoiding Naboo's more extreme fashion by wearing whatever shirts and pants I could find that looked most like the ones I had back at home. It wasn't exactly jeans and t-shirts, but it wasn't poofy sleeves or long robes either.

"I guess I'll just have to find something else to wear," I muttered. I grabbed a towel to cover as much of me as I could since I didn't think it would be a good idea to wander the palace in my boxers even if it was still early in the morning. I was thinking about going straight to Annabeth to see if she had any ideas about how to get clothes, but one of the queen's handmaidens was waiting at my door, blocking my escape. She looked so similar to Padmé that it had to be Sabé, the one who had pretended to be the queen.

"And where do you think you are going Percy Jackson?" she asked. "Dressed in little more than a towel no less." I knew my cheeks were bright red as she looked at my choice in clothing.

"Well, it's better than the stuff you call clothes in there," I mumbled as I hastily stepped back in my room and tried to cover more of me with the towel.

She took a step forward and stood in the doorway, "My queen has charged me with making sure you look respectable for the ceremony, and I will not fail her. So, I ask you to make this easy for the both of us and just put on the clothes."

I glanced at the clothes laid out on the bed and winced. I started looking for other escape routes and wondered if I could climb out the window with my towel when she sighed, "Well, I guess if you don't want to put on the clothes you can just miss the parade." I nodded liking that option. "It would be a pity though," she said with a sweet smile on her face that somehow didn't make me feel any better. "Annabeth is wearing the most beautiful dress."

That made me rethink my decision. For as long as I had known Annabeth, I had only seen her wear a dress once. Now, Annabeth was beautiful even after days in Tartarus, but that didn't mean I wouldn't mind seeing Annabeth in a dress again. At least this time all I had to do was put on some weird clothes which was definitely better than getting turned into a guinea pig by an evil sorceress. "Fine, I'll wear the stupid clothes." Sabé grinned evilly and closed the door as she stepped back into the hallway

I looked myself over in the mirror after the droid had helped me get dressed. I suppose I didn't look too bad, and the clothes weren't nearly as bad as the full-length robes I'd seen the noble men wear that looked like dresses. I'm sure the Aphrodite girls would have said the green outside coat thing with the fancy gold stitching brought out my eyes or something like that, but did it really have to have poofy sleeves and go down to my knees?

When I stepped out of my room again, Sabé gave me an approving look before taking me to the palace's main entrance hall to wait with everyone else for the queen. Annabeth wasn't there yet, but Obi-Wan and Anakin were. Anakin was wearing mini Jedi robes and now had the same crazy hair-cut Obi-Wan had. Although I noticed that Anakin had a little braid while Obi-Wan didn't have his anymore.

Obi-Wan took one look at what I was wearing and grinned. "Not a word Kenobi," I said as I awkwardly pulled at the cuffs on the itchy sleeves. "Besides, it's not like you can talk. You're still wearing a bathrobe."

"I am sure that would be more insulting if I actually knew what that was," Obi-Wan replied still smiling. For a moment he looked like his old self without the grief of Qui-Gon's death in his eyes. Well, at least these ridiculous clothes were good for something.

"I'll have to get Annabeth to show you a picture with her laptop then, so you can be properly insulted by my comebacks." Just then a door opened at the top of the stairs, and I completely forgot what I had been thinking. I'm pretty sure I would have forgotten to breath if my mouth wasn't hanging open.

Annabeth slowly walked down the stairs looking like some Greek princess version of Cinderella. Her curly blonde hair was stylishly pinned up and she was wearing a silver dress that draped across her arms and body and shimmered when she walked. I managed to close my mouth by the time she reached me, but my throat felt extremely dry when I tried to talk. "You look. . ." I cleared my throat. "You look amazing, Wise Girl."

She smiled at me, and I thought my heart would burst out of my chest. "You look rather dashing yourself, Seaweed Brain," she said. The look that she gave me made wearing these stupid clothes totally worth it.

The queen came shortly after Annabeth. Padmé gave both of us a small smile before adopting the serious queen face and leading us out into the main square. The parade was pretty cool. The Grand Army of the Gungans marched into the square with Boss Nass leading them on a falumpaset. The Naboo citizens cheered and threw flowers honoring the Gungans. I smiled thinking maybe this really could work, and the Naboo and Gungans could be friends. When Boss Nass reached the palace steps, Queen Amidala handed him this cool, glowing ball. Boss Nass faced the crowd, held the ball above his head, and dramatically shouted, "Peace!"

Then, the real party started. The Naboo and Gungans started dancing in the streets as the Gungan band struck up another song. I was surprised when Boss Nass walked up and actually bowed to me. Two Gungans placed a chest at my feet. "An offeren to the one blessud by Gobba who saved us," Boss Nass said as he stood straight and slapped my back. "Yousa should have told mesa, but me supposen da guds were testen us. Aye? Gobba showed his favor on a hisen meant it was time to bein friends wit da Naboo," he let out a big laugh.

"Umm, I don't know who this Gobba is, and you really don't need to give me offerings," I tried to explain.

But, Annabeth jumped in, "He gratefully accepts your offering Boss Nass, but please try to keep Gobba's blessing a secret at least among the Naboo." I guess she wanted to use whatever treasure was inside to add to the Free the Slaves Fund.

Boss Nass just laughed and patted me on the back. I hoped that was a yes, but Gungans kept bowing to me and saying stuff like "Favorite of Gobba," or "Gobba's Chosen."

Finally, I whispered to Annabeth, "Who is this Gobba, and why do the Gungans think I'm the favorite?" A lot of the Naboo politicians and court members had noticed my VIP treatment with the Gungans, including Senator Palpatine.

Annabeth sighed, "Really, Seaweed Brain, I don't know how you don't know. Did you even bother to learn about their culture, or were you too busy racing bongos?"

"I think bongos are very important to Gungan culture," I muttered back.

She rolled her eyes, "Gobba is their surface water deity. And between your Los Vegas fountain performance and riding into battle on a sando aqua monster, which they believe are sacred guardians of the underwater city of their gods, it's not hard to see why they think you've been blessed."

"Oh," I'm pretty sure my face was paler than Nico's. The Gungans were a little too close to figuring out my heritage. If more people found out, they might want to run experiments or lock my up like the Jedi had wanted to do. It's not like there was a Mist to help fool everyone in this universe. Who knew what the evil Sith Master would do if he found out.

"Relax," Annabeth hissed after a quick glance in the senator's direction. "I'm sure everyone will just assume it's a Gungan superstition. You just need to keep denying it around the Gungans and treat it like a big joke if anyone else brings it up."

I let out a deep breath, "Okay, I can do that." I smiled. "After all, I treat everything like a joke." Annabeth groaned, but I saw the smile she was trying to hide.

The rest of the day passed in a blur of partying surrounded by good friends, good food, and good music. Every once in a while, it looked like Senator Palpatine was heading in our direction. So, I just lead Annabeth to the dance floor, and we danced. "You know, we can't avoid him forever," Annabeth whispered while we were dancing after the third time, I had successfully avoided the senator.

"I know. I just really don't want to deal with any politics or politicians today." I gave Annabeth a twirl. I was glad that my dancing had improved some since I was fourteen. I mentally thanked the New York State required dancing classes in PE. It also helped that I was a few inches taller than Annabeth now. "Besides, I would much rather dance with my smart, beautiful, amazing girlfriend."

* * *

The ship back to Coruscant departed the next morning since Senator Palpatine had to return to the Senate and formerly prosecute the Trade Federation which meant the Jedi Council and Obi-Wan and Anakin were leaving too.

When it was time to say goodbye, Anakin was looking at the ground and scuffing his foot against the stone. I crouched down, so I was level with him, and asked "Hey, Ani are you mad at us for swearing the oath?"

He thought for a moment then shook his head and looked me in the eye. "No, I guess not. I know you only did it because you knew how badly I wanted to be a Jedi. I really am glad that you changed the Council's mind though, and Obi-Wan didn't have to leave the Order for me. I just wish it didn't have to be like this. I don't like that I'll never see you again." He sniffed and quickly looked down again and whipped his face on his sleeve.

Annabeth crouched down too, "I'm sure that's what the Jedi intended, but I did build in a loophole. We just promised that we would not actively attempt to see or contact you. If you managed to find us somehow, or we crossed paths during one of your Jedi missions, then we would not have broken our oaths. I have a feeling we will see each other again though it might be a few years."

I smiled, "And Annabeth's always right." That got a grin out of him. "I'll do my best to look after your mom while I can and make sure she's happy. But, I want you to promise me that you will train hard though try to have a little fun too. We don't want you turning into a serious Obi-Wan." He laughed a little at my joke. "Also, make sure you make friends because friends are important. I know I wouldn't be alive today if it weren't for mine."

He nodded, "Okay, Percy, I'll try."

Annabeth gave him a hug, "Bye Ani, take care of yourself. I hope you keep that incredible mind of yours busy learning new things and creating." She lowered her voice so that I could barely hear her even though I was right next to her. "Take care of Obi-Wan too. I'm sure he's having a rough time without Qui-Gon so please try to listen to him and be a good student."

Next, I hugged Anakin, "Just remember those stories and the Mom Test, and you will be fine. Maybe, the next time I see you, you will have a cool laser sword, and we can spar." He managed a small smile at that thought.

I stood back up next to Obi-Wan and watched Anakin run over to say goodbye to his mom, again. I muttered, "Gods, I'm going to miss that kid."

"I will take good care of him," Obi-Wan promised.

I smiled at my friend, "I know."

I looked at Anakin again and then started fingering my communication wristband as I got an idea. "Percy," Obi-Wan warned, "you know you cannot give that to him. It would only tempt you to break the oath."

"I know I can't give it to him," I admitted, "but I can give it to you." I glanced at Annabeth. She nodded, so I unhooked my wristband and held it out to Obi-Wan.

The Jedi frowned, "I cannot take this from you. You need it to communicate with Annabeth if you are separated."

I shrugged, "I don't think the two of us will be too far from each other for the next few years, assuming we don't magically poof back to our universe. Besides, if we really do need something like this again, I'm sure Annabeth could make it since she helped Ani with the designs. But, if you took it, then you could give us updates or contact us if anything happens or if you need help or just want to talk to a non-Jedi friend, no matter where we are. Plus, if anything happens Sith related on our end, we could just let you know, and then we wouldn't have to deal with the whole annoying Jedi Council."

"You do make a compelling argument. This would be more reliable than holograms, and I suppose you would not actually be communicating with Anakin," Obi-Wan reasoned. He sighed, "Fine, I'll take it." I smiled as he clipped the band onto his wrist.

I gave him another Roman handshake, "Take care, Obi-Wan. I expect to hear from you soon. Try to have some fun while you're at it."

For her goodbye, Annabeth just gave Obi-Wan a Jedi bow and said, "May the Force be with you."

He smiled and bowed back, "And may the Force be with you both."

As Anakin and Obi-Wan headed to the shuttle, Annabeth and I walked over to Shmi. I took it as a good sign that Anakin didn't look back once. The three of us watched the shuttle together until we couldn't see it anymore.

* * *

That night, I had another dream. It started with a voice that said, "Always two there are. No more, no less. A master and an apprentice." I figured the voice had to be Yoda because no one else talked like that. Then, I watched what felt like a lot of video clips. First there was a man leaving the Jedi Order, and then others started following him. They gained power, but it was through anger, hatred, and fear. The intensity of their hatred and the terrible things they did to other living beings made me shudder. That same group started fighting the Jedi with red lightsabers. The Jedi pushed them back, but the other group who I realized must be the Sith kept rebuilding and coming back stronger. The Sith created empires using slaves and built terrifying weapons that made nuclear bombs look like a kid's temper tantrum. But, the Sith fought each other almost as much as they fought the Jedi. Eventually, in a huge battle while the Sith were betraying each other, the Jedi struck them all down.

Somehow though, one Sith managed to survive. He trained an apprentice who later killed him. That apprentice became the master and trained an apprentice who later killed her. And so, it went on and on, apprentices killing their masters' only to be killed by their apprentices. Once in a while, a master would kill their own apprentice and then find another one. But, the voice at the beginning was right, after that last big battle there was only ever two Sith at a time. Towards the end, all the masters' deaths blurred together.

I woke up panting, trying to get rid of all the gruesome deaths I had just witnessed. I knew there was no way I was going back to sleep. All I could see were the flashes of red lightsabers, and the screams of the dying echoed in my head.

"What did you dream?" Annabeth asked as soon as she saw me the next morning.

"How did you –"

"You look like you've seen a ghost and barely slept at all which means you had a dream, and it must have been a bad one."

I sighed and looked around, but Panaka's house was empty except for us. So, I told Annabeth my dream, and as I went on her eyes got wider and wider.

"Wow, Percy, that's completely fascinating!" She said when I finished. "It makes a lot more sense now how the Sith were able to hide from the Jedi for so long. It's also nice to know we only have to deal with two of them. Or, I guess at the moment there is only one of them unless the Sith Master already has another apprentice."

I frowned, "I just don't get why the apprentices keep killing their masters? I mean isn't that sort of like killing their parent? That's pretty harsh even for evil guys."

"I don't think they really feel love, Percy," Annabeth said with a shrug. "Or, if they do, it's really twisted. I mean to be able to do even half of those things you said, I think this dark side must really corrupt them. Besides, killing parents really isn't that uncommon. Just look at our family.

"It happened to Ouranos, the father of the Titans, and in a way, he really was the patriarch of the Olympian bloodline since all the Protogenoi just sort of spontaneously generated from Chaos," Annabeth lectured. "Kronos did the immortal equivalent of killing his father, but not before Ouranos cursed him with the same fate. Of course, then Zeus did do the same thing to Kronos ironically because of the actions Kronos took to stop his children from overthrowing him. In a way, I guess it's sort of like evolution, the next generation proving that they are better than their predecessors. We are very lucky Zeus isn't even more paranoid than he already is. Sometimes, I'm surprised he lets any of us live."

I snorted, "We're just half-bloods it's not like we really could overthrow the gods. We aren't quite at the same power level."

Annabeth shrugged, "I don't know, Percy. No one knows exactly how demigods' powers are distributed outside of gods' blessings like Frank's family. A god could accidentally sire a child more powerful than he is. I mean Zeus did swallow my grandmother because she was prophesied to have a son more powerful than his father. There's also a rumor that both Zeus and your father stopped their advances on Thetis, Achilles' mother, and gave her to King Peleus instead because they heard a prophecy that Thetis would give birth to a son greater than his father. Not to mention the fact that Luke almost did overthrow the gods. It's not always about power, though. Usually, the children were able to overthrow their parents because they were more cunning and worked together."

I decided it was probably best not to mention that Luke had some serious help from Kronos. But, that got me thinking, "What exactly happened to Ouranos? I mean, I know his remains were tossed into the sea and all that. But, Kronos' remains were tossed into Tartarus, and he somehow reformed. Do you think Ouranos could do the same thing?"

Annabeth bit her lip as she thought, "I don't know, Percy. Immortals are practically impossible to actually kill for good, so maybe he could reform although I hope he never does. According to the myths, he was even worse than Kronos."

I shuddered. It was kind of hard to imagine anyone worse than Kronos, except maybe Tartarus. "Well maybe it's a good thing we got zapped to a different universe. Otherwise, we probably would have to fight him next. I guess the gods will just have to manage the next world ending crisis without us." I said with a smile, mostly joking.

Annabeth snorted, "Not even our luck could be that bad. I'm sure if he ever does reform it won't be in our lifetime."

* * *

 _Somewhere on the planet Moraband:_

The darkness stirred. It had been so long since he had an actual conscious, anything more than the all-consuming anger and hatred that incited his followers. It had been even longer since he had his memories and an actual identity, separate from this power, this cursed Force, that his essence had merged with. But, the power shifted suddenly, and he started to remember.

Originally, he had combined with the Force to gain the power to exact revenge on his treacherous family who had banished him to this forsaken universe. At first, he had relished his new found freedom since he was no longer bound to a domain. However, he quickly realized that since he was not bound to anything his power was diluted throughout the universe. He could no longer directly interact with the living, and he had been forced to become a silent observer, only able to empower and subtly influence those whose anger and hatred reflected his own. His followers were his only anchor, preventing him from being completely swept up in the endless stream of the Force, yet this native power had been determined to strip him of their support as well. For over a hundred millennia, he had been trapped in a constant tug of war for power with the Force as it tried to balance itself. All he could do was trust that his followers would complete their mission and weaken the other side as he slowly lost his identity and was reduced to just the dark shadow of the Force. However, everything changed when that one name "Ouranos," carried across the galaxy by his omnipresent power, reached the place where his essence was strongest. He was boosted by the belief in that name and an echo of his old power. He remembered what he had been and realized what he could be. After all names have power.

 **Author's Note: _I have a feeling that ending will be controversial, so let me know what y'all think. This is actually my second attempt after feedback from previous reviews, and this time I went with a minimalist approach as opposed to the big evil monologue since this gives me more flexibility down the road to take the time and slowly flesh out this idea_. I know it might be a stretch, but the whole Ouranos is the dark side was really the idea that sparked this whole fanfic because there seems to be very few fanfics with him as a villain even though he was destroyed in the same way as Kronos, and Kronos did come back. I also noticed a few similarities between the dark side and an angry, vengeful Ouranos, especially with the rule of two, and Sideous' prejudices against non-humans (though based on online forums Sideous' prejudices seem up for debate). It won't really have too large of an impact on the story till the end. **

**Thank you so much for reading this fanfic so far and all of the amazing support. Y'all have been really amazing readers. Based on my original outline, I thought Episode I would be about 20 chapters and 30k words. Clearly, I underestimated how much I would write, but I had way too much fun developing relationships between Percy and Anakin and Percy and Obi-Wan, plus exploring the difference in philosophy between Percy and the Jedi. I thought the whole story spanning all the prequels would be 100k, so I guess this will just be one of those super long stories now.**

 **Warning, the next part of the story will be a little different style wise to mark the difference between the actual episodes and the interlude period. As of now, I plan to write Episodes II and III in the same style as Episode I. I'm hoping to have about 8-10 chapters in between Episode I and II, but they will be from different character perspectives with different tones and so forth so I can have fun with different styles and give y'all a little change. Some of them may be really short, and some of them may be long. Also, updates will be more irregular, unfortunately. I've spent way too much time writing this fic and have to catch up with the stuff I'm actually supposed to be doing. I know a lot of author's say this and don't follow through, but I promise that I will not abandon this fanfic (more so out of personal pride and stubbornness, but your support is an even better motivator). However, I should be able to get the next one up in two weeks or so.**


	25. Interlude I

**Thanks for everyone that stayed with this story after last chapter's unexpected twist. Due to your amazing feedback, I was able to fix the ending and posted a much better version of the last section late on October 22nd depending on your time zone.**

 **I struggled a bit with this chapter and went back and forth on using this particular character's perspective since I would prefer for him to be in the shadows, but I think it would have been too difficult to communicate everything if I had used someone else. Also this chapter and probably other elements of this story have been influenced by the amazing Star Wars time travel fanfic, "The Red Past" by Toruviel on Ao3. It really is a masterpiece, so you should definitely check it out if you haven't read it yet (and maybe it would encourage the author to write another chapter).**

Interlude I - _Palpatine_

Over two months after the Battle of Naboo, Senator Sheev Palpatine waited at the door of a three-story residence along one of Theed's main thoroughfares. It had taken longer than he had liked to leave Coruscant, but now he could finally turn his attention to far more stimulating pursuits. Once Palpatine had returned to Naboo, Captain Panaka had been more than willing to invite the senator to his home for a dinner. Honest and exceedingly loyal, Panaka had been far too easy to manipulate. Although Palpatine did wish to show Panaka favor for his dedication to his superiors and overall competence, a trait that was becoming increasingly rare throughout the galaxy, he was far more interested in the captain's two charges.

After a moment, Shmi Skywalker opened the door and greeted him with a kind smile and a bow. "My dear Shmi, it is a pleasure to see you again," Palpatine exclaimed forcing the warmth into his voice. They exchanged further pleasantries, and Shmi admitted that Panaka had offered her a guest bedroom until she found a place of her own, although her blush suggested that she might remain for some time.

While she had stayed with him on Coruscant during the conflict, Shmi had been an excellent source of information regarding both her own son and Panaka's charges. Based on the extraordinary circumstances of Anakin's birth and the boy's powerful Force-presence, Sidious suspected that he may indeed be the child resulting from his Master's Force experiments. Young Skywalker would make an excellent apprentice, and with time, Sidious knew he could turn the boy. At the moment though, his attempts to build a relationship with young Skywalker had been thwarted by Skywalker's current Master, Obi-Wan Kenobi. Sidious was certain that a young Jedi Knight just saddled with a Padawan would welcome a break from constant chaperoning, but Kenobi had accompanied Skywalker for tea at the senator's office all four times he had invited the boy.

In his previous dealings with Kenobi, the young Jedi had always exhibited the distant respect the Jedi encouraged their members to show politicians, not this open distrust. The change could only mean that Annabeth Chase had shared her suspicions, probably as a precaution in case she was targeted, smart girl. Palpatine had known she would figure out that he was the only candidate to benefit from an attack on Naboo. She was too clever not to. He even suspected that she had put the pieces together in his office but had the sense not to say anything more. However, he knew that she had not figured everything out because the Jedi would have acted against him by now. That meant the situation could still be salvaged, especially, since Kenobi, for whatever reason, seemed to not have shared his misgivings with the Jedi Council.

Though if his plan was successful tonight, Annabeth Chase would willingly help Palpatine and convince Kenobi that their distrust was misplaced. Turning the girl into an ally was a far more rewarding scheme than simply eliminating her as he had initially planned since her death at this point would only increase suspicion no matter how craftily he went about it. Plus, if he had the girl, then he had the boy. Despite Percy Jackson's claim to be unpredictable, Palpatine knew that he would always follow the girl, such was the depth of their attachment.

Shmi acted as a gracious hostess and led him to the dinning room where the rest of the dinner party waited. Panaka bowed and thanked him for the honor of his visit. The children bowed as well. The girl gave him a polite smile, but he felt her steely gray eyes analyzing his every move. The boy was far less subtle at hiding his feelings and grimaced when Palpatine entered the room. Clearly, the boy still did not like him. In fact, Percy Jackson had seemed wary of him from the very beginning even before the girl had formed her suspicions. Palpatine supposed it was possible that the boy could sense something about him.

Palpatine still did not know what exactly Jackson and Chase were, only that they were different from any other Force-user he had met before and rather powerful, particularly the boy. When he had inspected the battlefield on the Great Grass Plains, he had immediately sensed the remnants of power from the formation of the new branch in the Solleu. It had the distinct signature of the boy's Force presence though the Naboo Security Forces had insisted the new water feature was from the Trade Federation's weapons or the Gungan's volatile plasma bombs. He had to talk to that fool of a Gungan to get the real account. He would have thought the Gungan was exaggerating, but Jackson had clearly done something impressive to receive that level of reverence from the primitive amphibians. If he were to believe the Gungan, Jackson possessed power the likes of which the galaxy had not seen in over a millennium: controlling a Force resistant beast, cracking open the very ground, and directly manipulating matter at such a large extent.

The Force whirled around the boy like a storm making it impossible to sense his thoughts or predict his actions. Chase had a more conventional block, but it was still effective. When he had asked Shmi about their origins, she had told him they were Force-sensitives stranded from another galaxy. Perhaps, it was just a coincidence that two strange and powerful Force-users appeared out of nowhere right when Sidious executed his plan, but coincidences were very rare.

As they sat down at the table, the girl asked, "So Senator, were there any complications in Nute Gunray's trial that were not mentioned in the HoloNet News coverage?"

Palpatine smiled at her, "Beside Gunray's lawyer trying to use every possible delay tactic, the trial ran rather smoothly. I actually had very little to do since the jury had no choice but to declare the viceroy guilty with all of the evidence collected by the Senate commission."

"You are being too modest, Senator," Panaka stated. "The final speech you made at the trial was very compelling."

"Yes, and I'm sure your success with the prosecution will help with the upcoming chancellor election," Chase gave him an assessing look.

"A man can hardly complain if doing his solemn duty for his people does happen to boost his polling numbers as well," Palpatine said with a smile like he was sharing a great secret. In fact, that was the main reason why the trial had to be successful, at least initially. Nute Gunray would stew in prison and reflect on his utter failure at the hands of four children. However, Gunray did have his uses, mainly his droid army which was why a corrupt judge would overturn the jury's verdict in a few months and with a bit of manipulation Gunray would retain his position as viceroy. It would just be another black mark against the current administration, while Palpatine and Naboo were once again victims of corruption. The whole affair would ensure that he won the chancellor election even if it had delayed his plans.

Palpatine directed the conversation to Naboo's recovery and the new Gungan alliance. He hoped to engage Jackson in the discussion since the boy had been doing a rather impressive job at dissipating thousands of years of distrust between the two peoples and must clearly be passionate about the subject. However, Jackson seemed to be doing his best to ignore the senator. Even when Palpatine asked him a question, the boy would stubbornly reply with only one word. Finally, Palpatine took a more direct approach, "Percy, if the rest of the company would excuse my bluntness, I would like for us to speak plainly."

Jackson raised an eyebrow and smirked, "Sorry Senator, but I thought that was exactly what I've been doing."

"I suppose you have," Palpatine said dryly. "Therefore, I will follow your example of frankness. You dislike me, Percy," He was amused that the boy did not even try to politely deny it like most would, "possibly even before that meeting in my office all those months ago. Usually, I would not trouble myself over a single man's regard, but your guardian and I are close friends. I am sure the good captain would prefer if we got along better. Past events have also shown that you and Annabeth are quite talented and have much to offer Naboo. I believe if we work together, we could have a lasting impact not only on Naboo but the rest of the galaxy as well. However, to accomplish any of this we will have to at least be able to talk cordially, so I would like to know why I have earned your seemingly instantaneous disapproval."

Jackson leaned back in his chair and gave a nonchalant shrug before focusing those green eyes on Palpatine, "Well since you asked, you just remind me a lot of this other politician I knew back on my home planet. He took over his government, used a war he encouraged to extend his political power to almost unprecedented levels, and then tried to kill my friends and family. I'm sure you're nothing like that, and it's just that you are a skilled orator like he was." The boy grimaced, "But, every time you speak, I'm reminded of that scrawny, teddy bear slaughtering, slime ball."

"Percy!" Panaka and Annabeth exclaimed.

"I expected better behavior from you. Apologize to the senator," Panaka ordered.

The girl sighed, "Really, Seaweed Brain, you should know better than to just blurt out whatever you think. How many powerful people have you managed to anger by doing that?"

Jackson smirked, "At least I wasn't the one to get Hera mad enough at me to curse me with cow poop. I mean after what she did to Hercules, even I knew better than that."

"Percy," Panaka warned.

Jackson stared at his guardian for a moment before turning to Palpatine, "I'm sorry if I offended you, Senator." The boy looked like he had swallowed something bitter. Obedience clearly did not come easily to him. It was a testament to Jackson's deep respect for Panaka that the boy did as the captain asked. In fact, Palpatine suspected Jackson only obeyed the order because he felt indebted to Panaka for taking them in. The boy would certainly be amusing to break to his will.

"Besides, I'm sure Senator Palpatine is nothing like Octavian," Chase said attempting to soothe everything over. Palpatine saw strength and intelligence in those calculating grey eyes. She had a softer Force presence than the boy's, but her perception was better than most Jedi Masters on the Council. Between her astuteness and the boy's massive, unbridled power, it was little wonder that they were able to foil his initial plan. Suddenly, he felt a strong need to possess these children, to control them.

Palpatine chuckled genially, hiding his surprise that Percy was a little too familiar with how a politician might extend his power. As long as these children were alive, he would have to tread carefully with his plan unless he could succeed in gaining their trust. "Dear boy, I will do my best to ensure you that I am not like this Octavian though I greatly appreciate your honesty. It is so hard to find in most of the people I deal with day to day. Talking with you is like a breath of fresh air. Please, there is no need to apologize. I asked a very nosy and personal question. Only a politician would have given a flattering answer to that question, and you, Percy, are no politician."

"Thank you, sir, I'll take that as a compliment," the boy replied with a grin.

The tension in the room lessened considerably. "So now that you have saved the planet, what's next for you two?" Palpatine asked.

Perhaps he would send a few bounty hunters their way to see how talented they really were after they helped him with his problem of course. If the hired killers succeeded, it would be two less people in his way no matter how useful they might be or what the Dark Side suggested. It would also keep them focused on the mysterious Sith Lord and not Palpatine.

Percy sighed and ran his hand through his hair, "Well, I sort of swore this oath back on Tatooine that I would try to free the slaves, so we're going to find a way to do that."

It seemed that Palpatine would not have to send bounty hunters to test them. The Hutts would take care of that for him, foolish boy. When Shmi had mentioned the boy's intentions on Coruscant, Palpatine had assumed the boy had just made another empty promise, but no, he was serious. He glanced at Chase. They were serious. Palpatine wanted to smile. He could use this. The situation did give him the perfect opportunity to gain the children's trust if he helped them and assuming they were skilled enough to survive the Hutts' wrath. Depending on how they went about it, he could also use this to start his war. It would be different than his original plan, but it had the potential to be even better because it would be an authentic catalyst that he did not manufacture.

"Ah yes, the slavery problem," Palpatine responded wearily as if he had spent many nights pondering the issue. "It has been a plague on this galaxy for far too long, and many have tried to find a way to end it. Unfortunately, there is little the Republic can do under our current laws even if enough senators agreed to take action, although numerous politicians are on the Hutts' payrolls. Many believe ending slavery outside of the Republic cannot be done."

"I've actually wondered about that, sir," Chase admitted. "Perhaps, you could explain some of the finer details in the Republic's laws."

"I will do my best," Palpatine replied, excepting to explain anti-expansion laws, or why the anti-slavery law could not be extended to Tatooine. Those were the typical first approaches to the slavery issue.

"Based on the data I've managed to find and what Shmi has told me," Chase said, "I estimate that at least 25% of the slaves on Tatooine were once citizens of the Republic, and that's a conservative estimate. The Republic has the right and responsibility to protect its citizens from foreign sovereignties. Could the Republic use that as justification to at least free the slaves that were once citizens? If negotiations failed and conflict was necessary, a few other slaves may accidentally be freed as well, but surely, even the Republic's strongest critics could not fault a government for freeing its citizens who were unlawfully captured by another government."

Palpatine was impressed. "That is one of the more promising approaches I have heard for this particular issue, young lady, and it would prevent accusations of warmongering or unjustified expansion. With time and the right political pressure, it could possibly succeed in at least freeing our citizens though I doubt it would stop the practice entirely. However, at the moment there are two major obstacles that will be very difficult to overcome. Plus, you still risk outright war even if the cause is justifiable.

"Firstly, those slaves are first and foremost citizens of their home planets. In order to act, the Senate would initially require a formal petition for aid from the slaves' home systems. Most of the time pirates and slavers are careful to only capture citizens whose absence will not be missed, like colonists or those from a poor settlement. Unfortunately, the systems that would have the strongest petitions, because their citizens are actively targeted by slavers, are also the ones least likely to make a motion. For example, Ryloth has the greatest percentage of citizens sold into slavery than any other system in the Republic, but their politicians will not take any action because slavery is Ryloth's most profitable export." Both children looked horrified. Clearly, slavery was not a common practice in their original home.

"But. . . how? It should be illegal under the Republic's law," the girl managed to say.

"Should is the operative word. Sadly, there are loopholes and differences in wordings that allow the Ryloth government to continue the practice, and most in the Republic just turn a blind eye. Ryloth's government and even many of its citizens believe slavery is a better alternative for orphaned children or for those children from families that are too poor to support them."

Jackson snorted in derision, "That's worse than the Jedi trying to justify taking babies away from their families."

Palpatine nodded in agreement, "Some of the Jedi's critics have certainly compared the Jedi's recruitment method to slavery. For better or worse though, the Jedi's recruitment practices are perfectly legal with the consent of the child's parents though I fear sometimes the consent of the parent may be given under ambiguous circumstances.

"The second obstacle to this approach would of course be the Republic's lack of an army when negotiations with the Hutts fail as we all know they would. However, that issue is easier to go around perhaps with the creation of a volunteer force or systems with armed forces could loan troops to the Senate."

Chase sighed, "Well, that was my best idea to try and get the Republic to directly help. I guess it might be better if Percy and I try some of my other ideas and let this one be a backup since it will take so long. Is there anything we can do to stop the slaving on Ryloth?"

"I am afraid the legal slaving on Ryloth may be even more complicated than the slavery on Tatooine. Perhaps it is time, though, for the Senate to take a stand. We could try to institute a new tax on lifelong contracts as the Ryloth government likes to refer to it. However, that may only increase the amount of illegal slaving and not solve the problem. Hmm, I will have to think on it. Maybe, we could focus on increasing humanitarian and education efforts on Ryloth, give the people an alternative."

The party moved to the study for drinks after dinner though Shmi excused herself due to tiredness. Jackson looked like he wanted to escape too, but Chase gripped his arm and dragged him along. "But, Annabeth, we can't even drink," he muttered.

"We can on Naboo," she hissed back.

Panaka poured Palpatine a generous glass of Tarul wine and offered the children smaller glasses of the exceptional drink. The girl hesitated for a moment and took a glass, but Jackson turned pale and shook his head, "Thanks, Panaka, but I'll pass." Chase looked at her companion with concern, but he just shook his head, again, though his eyes were full of an emotion that Palpatine could not read. He had no trouble reading the girl's emotions even without the Force. Her eyes blazed with an almost righteous anger even as she squeezed the boy's hand providing comfort.

The conversation picked up again with Palpatine and Panaka reminiscing about some of the more memorable incidents with King Veruna but shifted to the upcoming chancellor elections in four months. "It seems like you have a good chance, Senator," Panaka stated. "I will admit that it would be nice to have a chancellor from Naboo. Not that I think you would favor us because you are too good of a leader to do that. It is just that most of the galaxy seems to think we are just a bunch of idealistic artists, but you could show them otherwise."

Palpatine graciously accepted the complement, "I hope I have the opportunity to do so, old friend. Unfortunately, I might not have the chance."

"What do you mean?" Chase asked.

Palpatine sighed, "I must tell you something though it cannot leave this room." He looked at the girl, "I assume there are no spying devices?"

She nodded, "I check regularly after the ones we found on the ship."

"Senator, are you in trouble?" Panaka asked.

"Yes, I am afraid I am," Palpatine said solemnly. "You see, I am being blackmailed."

"I knew it!" Chase exclaimed. "It was the only logical scenario."

Panaka frowned, "Who could blackmail you, Senator?"

"I'm afraid even by telling you I am putting you all in great danger," Palpatine replied with concern.

Jackson just rolled his eyes, "Please, we can take care of ourselves. Besides you have to tell us because clearly you need something from us otherwise you wouldn't have mentioned it at all, and you made the terrible mistake of making Annabeth curious. Believe me, she won't let something go until she figures it out."

Palpatine gave a small smile, "You are right, Percy, I was hoping you and Annabeth might be able to help me if your guardian gives his permission. Otherwise, I fear I will have no choice but to withdraw from the chancellor's election and face the consequences of the exposed blackmail. As terrible as that would be, I refuse to be someone else's pawn." He met the boy's green eyes and found grudging approval there.

"Of course, Senator, I am sure we will all do whatever we can to help you as loyal citizens of Naboo," the captain stated.

Palpatine bowed his head in respect for the captain's loyalty. "Thank you for your support, Captain. About a month ago, I received this hologram."

Palpatine showed them the hologram of a hooded figure who said in a gravelly voice, "Senator Palpatine, it is an honor to speak to the next Supreme Chancellor. I hope you and I will have a most fruitful friendship. If you wish to enjoy successful terms as chancellor and be remembered as the Republic's finest leader, then you will listen to my future advice. Otherwise, I am afraid the whole galaxy will know what occurred 18 years ago, particularly the interaction on your third night on Anison. I ensure you that I have everything well documented. We can be friends or enemies, Senator. The choice is yours, but trust me when I say, you do not want Darth Sidious as an enemy."

The girl glanced at Jackson who gave her a small nod, no doubt confirming that the figure in the hologram was the Sith Lord in his Force vision. If Palpatine had not been looking for such an exchange, he would have missed it. Jackson then did something rather unexpected. He laughed, "Man and I thought some of my relatives have weird names. I mean, can these guys be any more obvious with the evil names!"

Chase snorted, "I'll admit they do seem rather dramatic with the ominous names though it's not like you can talk Seaweed Brain."

Jackson rolled his eyes, "Yeah, well mine is way less obvious, and I don't use it." Then his eyes narrowed as he asked, "What I want to know is why come to us, Senator? I mean with blackmail being illegal and all and the Sith, shouldn't you ask the Jedi to help you instead since the Sith are their like sacred enemy or whatever?"

Palpatine was impressed. The laughter and foolish statement followed by the shrewd question. That was the second rather insightful remark the boy had made since dinner while the girl was too preoccupied basking in her brilliance of being right. Jackson was clearly far more intelligent than he appeared to be. Perhaps he even deliberately made ridiculous comments just so people would underestimate him.

"I fear the matter is rather delicate, my dear boy," Palpatine responded. "If the Jedi found out what the blackmail entails, then I will not be the only one to suffer."

"Senator, I know the situation is delicate, but if you want our help then we need to know why the Jedi cannot be involved," Chase pleaded.

He sighed, "Yes, I suppose you do. Please excuse an old man's attempt to preserve his dignity. You see, when I was a much younger man, I foolishly fell in love with a member of the Jedi Order who was assigned on a prolonged mission with me, and perhaps even worse, she fell in love with me." Gasps of surprise came from his audience as he expected. After all, this was a performance specifically tailored to hook Jackson and Chase. "I do not know how, but this Sith Lord must have evidence of the affair."

"But surely an affair can't be that damning even if Naboo is rather conservative when it comes to sexual intercourse outside of marriage," Chase reasoned.

Palpatine shrugged, "If it was only an affair, perhaps I could survive the political backlash from my constituents. Unfortunately, it was an affair with a Jedi who has become a rather prominent leader in the Order. That would be seen as an extreme conflict of interests and could result in inquires into all of the motions and bills I have pushed through as well as the actions of the Jedi Order, including their recent involvement in stopping the Trade Federation. I also fear what the Jedi might do to the woman I loved since the affair was not solely physical. They are rather strict when it comes to emotional attachments though that is a rather objective label for something as abstract as love."

The boy grimaced and nodded in understanding. Good, Palpatine suspected that the Jedi's disapproval of Force-users having attachments was one of Jackson's disagreements with the Order. Clearly, the Jedi recruitment method was another. No doubt the Jedi Council had been critical of the boy's own relationship in at least one of the two meetings. Those old fools were driving away a powerful ally. "As heartbreaking as it may be for me, I hope for her sake that her feelings for me have lessened over time. Otherwise, the Jedi Council may expel her from the Order if they ever found out which would crush her. That is why I made the decision long ago to deny my true feelings when she confessed her love. I knew I loved her too much to make her choose between me and the Order."

"You still should have let her choose," the girl said disapprovingly.

The Senator sighed, "Maybe, I should have, my dear. But back then, I was blinded by love. After all, love seems to make us all do foolish things at one point or another," he said with a sad smile that he directed at Jackson.

The boy glanced at Chase, most likely remembering whatever foolish choices he had made for love. Palpatine would guarantee that the boy would make more since he intended to use the boy's love to turn him into the perfect pawn. Love and compassion were weaknesses to be exploited. The girl could be useful as well in her own right in addition to providing a means to control Jackson. She was smart and resourceful. He would just have to direct that mind to pursuits that would benefit Palpatine once he gained her trust. However, if Chase became too troublesome or got too close to his secret, he would get rid of her regardless of the Dark Side's urging. If necessary, he would eliminate Chase in a way that blamed the Jedi. Then Jackson's wrath would be directed at them, and the boy would easily turn to Darth Sidious to help him seek revenge for his beloved.

"Based on Shmi's story about how you infiltrated a Hutt's residence," Palpatine continued, "not to mention breaking through the Trade Federation's communication block and battling a Sith, I believe you are the best choice for this even if I could go to the Jedi. You will not be restricted by some of the Orders more outdated and unrealistic traditions." He glanced at Panaka, "Though I am afraid, that this will likely put your charges in grave danger."

Panaka eyed the children. "I am beginning to believe that being in danger is a common occurrence for them whether it is because of terrible luck or their own rash actions," the captain said sounding both amused and resigned. "Though they are rather capable at handling themselves."

"Wait," Percy interrupted with a defiant glare at his guardian. "You're cool with us putting ourselves in danger to help a politician with some Sith who the Jedi strictly told us to avoid, but it's too dangerous right now for us to go against the Hutts to free slaves! I mean this Sith guy is probably at least as dangerous as the Hutts."

Panaka stared down his charge, "This is different."

Percy snorted, "The only difference I see is that one would help a powerful, important person while the other helps people the rest of the galaxy seems to have forgotten about. So, you're cool with us risking our lives as long as it's for a friend in a high place."

Panaka recoiled as if the boy had slapped him. Palpatine was once again impressed by Jackson's rebellious spirit as he questioned his guardian's orders. Yes, breaking that spirit would indeed be amusing, but for now he needed to soothe the situation since Jackson's respect for Panaka was one of the only reasons the boy was even talking to Palpatine. At a later time, he would see exactly what would happen if Jackson gave into that anger. "I am certain that is not what Captain Panaka meant, my dear boy. Your guardian was wise to caution you against rushing off to free slaves. As we discussed at dinner, the slavery situation is extremely complex and could take years to solve politically much less any required physical conflict. It would be suicide to rush off on a crusade of two against the Hutt empire. I am sure as a gifted strategist Annabeth would agree with me when I say that the blackmail problem is simpler though the Sith should still not be underestimated."

Jackson glanced at Chase who shrugged, "They are not wrong. As you know, freeing the slaves will take years to plan out strategies and actually execute them, while with luck this blackmail problem could be fixed in a few months. I may be able to back trace where that hologram came from though I'm sure this guy is good enough to hide his tracks from at least conventional tech. Give me a week, and I might be able to come up with something to put on your holoprojector to track the next call. Once we find a location, we can work on recovering and destroying the blackmail, but this Sith will be tricky and dangerous."

It was time for the final push now to see if the fish would take the bait. "I understand perfectly if you do not wish to help me, Percy. Especially, after your justifiable mistrust of politicians, I cannot expect you to risk your life for me and an unknown Jedi Master. Plus, this Sith Lord clearly is dangerous if he is really the mastermind behind the attack on Naboo and the assassination attempt on our queen. I would not think any less of you if you refused."

Jackson sighed, "No, I'll do it." He looked at Chase, and the girl nodded confidently. "We'll do it. I understand trying to protect someone you love, and I wouldn't want that Trade Federation douche to walk free because of this." Jackson then flashed a rather predatory smile. "Besides, I owe that Sith Lord a kick in the podex."

 **Author Notes: To answer some review questions I've received:**

 **Will this story include the Clone Wars?** _This is a tough question. My original outline just focused on the three prequel movies, and I will admit that I had not seen much of the Clone Wars TV show before I started writing this fanfic. However, since then I have been watching the TV show when I can. Part of me would love to include some of the campaigns, but I also know it will drag this story out even longer and make it more difficult for me to actually finish. So I am considering maybe including three or so battles just to act as a transition between Episode II and III, or I could just follow the outline and maybe make a separate story just for the Clone Wars once I'm done with this one. Let me know what you guys think?_

 **Will Percy and Annabeth get married and have kids?** _The issue will be addressed in this Interlude though don't get your hopes up_


	26. Interlude IIA

**As always thanks for all of the reviews, favorites and follows. The reviews really do make my day! I'm sorry for the long delay for this update, but this was by far the hardest chapter to write (I have more drafts for this than the proposal I'm supposed to be writing). I had a lot of important information to cover, and the first few attempts were too much explanation and not enough showing, so I decided to use the day-in-the-life style which usually is written in present tense based on my research. I'll apologize ahead of time because it starts a little rough but gets better as you go along. If you don't like present tense writing, don't worry I hated writing in it and will never do it again, though unfortunately this section was over 10,000 words, so I broke it up into two chapters. Therefore, the next chapter (definitely the better one so you should give it a chance) is already written, and I'll post it in three more days. After that, I promise no more present tense. Thanks for being amazing readers!**

Interlude II – _A Day in the Life of a Demigod in an Alternate Universe by Percy Jackson_

In case you were wondering what a typical day was like for Annabeth and me, here's an example:

The chrono goes off at 0600. I drag myself out of bed and to the bathroom. Without monsters or the you-are-about-to-die adrenaline kick, waking up that early is hard. Everything is kind of a haze until I splash water on my face. Probably one of the best things about being a son of Poseidon is that my morning face washing feels like an espresso caffeine rush. I head down to the kitchen, snag an energy bar and meet Annabeth at the front door for our daily pre-training run.

With all these Jedi, Sith, and assassins running around, Annabeth and I realized we have to pick up our training and conditioning as much as we can. By 0700, we are back at the house and head to Panaka's super cool training gym in the basement. Today, Panaka beat us down there. He likes to lift weights and do his own training when he's not on a morning guard duty shift though I also think he wants to keep an eye on our training too. "So, what's it going to be today?" he asks.

Annabeth and I practice with a different weapon every day. Sometimes we use swords (still my favorite). Other times it's electropoles, blaster, or whatever new weapon Annabeth can find. Some days it's no weapons at all. "Today, it's Percy's turn with the lightsaber," she replies. Annabeth and I have been taking turns practicing with Qui-Gon's lightsaber ever since Obi-Wan gave it to me although it will be my main weapon in this universe since Riptide's useless against most of the people.

Over the past few months of training, I've gotten pretty good with the Jedi weapon. The weird balance no longer feels awkward. It's hard to explain, but I sort of feel like I'm forming some kind of connection with it. Annabeth says it's just my imagination. But now, I can use the lightsaber almost as well as Riptide which means I win most of our competitive duels when I use it. But, today there's an evil glint in Annabeth's eyes which means she's going to make sure I don't win this time. Annabeth hates losing. "And," Annabeth continues, "You are going to do the Obi-Wan drill!" She opens the lid to a jug of water.

"That's such a handicap," I grumble. "And that's got to be almost a gallon!" At least a few times a week, I practice fighting while lifting water like Obi-Wan had me do on the trip back to Naboo.

She smirks, "Well, I think it's time you have a bit more of a challenge since last time you clearly had enough concentration to make water spiders too distract me."

I wince. I knew she would get me back for that one. Maybe, I was a bad boyfriend for using spiders against Annabeth, but I just wanted to win once in hand-to-hand combat. "At least I made cute little spiders doing the hokey pokey." After her initial shock, it did make her laugh.

"There's no such thing as cute spiders," Annabeth retorts trying to not smile, "though they were quite funny, but that's my point. You clearly are showing good control even while focused on fighting with a small amount of water. Now, you need to do the same thing with more. You lifted about 70,000 gallons when you were practicing by the lake, so this should be a cinch." On our day off, Annabeth and I go to isolated areas, so I can practice using my powers on a larger scale. "Your powers are one of the few advantages that we have in this universe. If we are going to survive you need to hone your control over a larger volume."

I know she's right though I still pout. The Obi-Wan drill, dancing water spiders not included, isn't cool or flashy, like making a hurricane or lifting up a lake, but it does help me get better at using my powers while I'm primarily focused on something else which would definitely be useful. I learned that the hard way back in Rome when I struggled to contain the Giant Otis in a lake while Jason and I tried to battle his twin, Ephialtes.

Annabeth rolls her eyes at my begging face. "I'll use the electropole, so it will be more of a fair fight." While we are probably better than most mortals, neither of us particularly like using spears. "That way I can shock you when you get sloppy."

"Actually, I got some new weapons and training tools for you," Panaka says. He goes to one of the weapon racks and grabs something that looks similar to the Gungan's electropoles, but it's made out of a different material and is shorter, maybe a little more than a yard long. "This is a Force pike. It's got a vibro-edged head, so keep the setting on low while you practice. This particular model has a cortosis-weave, so it should be able to withstand a lightsaber."

He tosses it to Annabeth who expertly whirls it around and takes a practice stab. "Oh, I like this! Much more maneuverable than a spear." As a test, I take a swing at it with the lightsaber on full power. Sure enough, the blade didn't cut through the metal. "Wow," Annabeth grins even wider, "Now, I'll actually be able to fight against these Sith."

"Just be careful, the cortosis-weave can weaken the alloy," Panaka warns. "I heard a rumor at the weapons convention that the Baktoid Armor Workshop is developing a similar weapon out of a stronger material though that weapon may be harder to get our hands on. Even a Force pike would be difficult to legally procure if I was not the captain of the Naboo Forces."

Once we start dueling for real, I quickly find out that fighting against my girlfriend when she has a Force pike is not fun. I've fought against spears before, but this Force pike is small enough that Annabeth can use it at a closer range and much faster than any spear. I'm so focused on blocking the shocking end of the pike that I leave myself open to getting rammed with the other end, less painful than the shock but still not cool. After the sixth time she swiped me, I've had enough, so I drop the water ball. The water splatters everywhere, but Annabeth and I keep fighting.

Now, with my full attention on the fight, I can actually block both ends of the staff. I go on the offensive, but before I can really push my advantage, a blaster goes off. Instinctively, I drop to the ground as a blaster bolt flies over me. I roll, but several more follow. I jump up with my lightsaber at the ready and see four spheres firing at Annabeth and me. She dodges the lasers so gracefully it looks like she's dancing. She even deflects a bolt off the pike. Next thing I know there's another bolt coming right at me. I don't have time to move out of the way. My instincts take over, and I catch the bolt on the lightsaber. Automatically, Annabeth and I start working together. She lunges and knocks one of the annoying balls to the ground while I cover her back with the lightsaber. The blaster sphere stays down. We make quick work with the rest of them. The last one goes down when I swipe it with my lightsaber.

Panaka breaks the after battle quite with a few appreciative claps, "You two are good. That was the most difficult setting, and you disabled the droids in just over a minute even though it was a surprise attack."

"Yeah, a little warning would have been nice," I give Panaka a half-hearted glare. "But, it was pretty fun, so I guess it's okay." I switch my lightsaber off and grin. I still can't get over how cool lightsabers sound.

"What are they?" Annabeth asks as she picks up one of them. "Some kind of training droid?"

Panaka nods, "Yes, exactly. I use them to train the Palace Guard on reflexes and marksmanship though after recent events it will be a part of all Naboo Security Force training. Apparently, Jedi also use these remote droids for lightsaber training as well. I will see about getting a few more for you down here. Clearly, you two need more of a challenge."

"Thanks, Panaka!" I grin, glad that our legal guardian has a nice appreciation for weapons and can easily get us new toys – sorry, I mean training tools – to play with.

Annabeth gasps and drops the droid she'd been examining. "Holy Hera! It's 0850! We're running late."

I'm about to sprint up the stairs, but Panaka says, "Percy, the water that is all over the floor."

"Oh, right!" I close my eyes for a second to concentrate and will all the water to flow back into the jug before running up to my room for a record setting shower. Then, I rush back down to the kitchen for breakfast.

Shmi smiles as I slide into the room. "I was wondering if you were going to eat breakfast today," she says and places a heaping plate full of pastries and Naboo's equivalent of eggs and bacon. I think the eggs come from some reptilian bird called Peekaboo or something like that.

"The world would have to be ending before Percy skips a meal," Annabeth says as she takes the seat next to me. Unfortunately, we both know from experience that she's not wrong. "Thanks, Shmi. It looks great!"

I nod in agreement and manage a quick thanks in between bites. We all told Shmi that she didn't have to cook for us, but that didn't stop her. She said that she wasn't used to having so much food, and she discovered that she really enjoyed cooking different things though Annabeth and I would still try to help her whenever we could.

Shmi found a good job helping an elderly couple a few blocks down run their machine shop. When Annabeth asked if Shmi would prefer other work that wasn't so similar to what she did while she was a slave, Shmi just smiled softly and said, "It's the only thing I know how to do, and I am good at it. Besides, choosing to do this and being respected and given a wage makes all of the difference." By now, I'm sure Shmi has enough credits for her own place, but thankfully, she doesn't seem in any hurry to move out. It's not just the cooking that we'll miss, but everyone just seems happier with her around, especially Panaka. When Annabeth and I first moved in with him, Panaka was this super serious military guy. He was fair and tried to take care of us, but he hardly ever smiled or laughed. Now, he's different, and I think Shmi's the main reason.

* * *

It's 0920. Usually, Annabeth and I walk to work, but we take a speeder since I cannot be late today. Five minutes later, I park, give Annabeth a quick kiss on the cheek, and take off for my office in the palace. "Goodluck today, Seaweed Brain," Annabeth calls after me. "Try not to offend Tapalo."

I'm pretty sure it's too late for me not to offend Ras Tapalo, and it will only be worse if I show up late. I skid to a stop in my office. The waiting room is empty. "Are they here yet?" I ask my assistant protocol droid.

"No, Master Percy, the Minster of Commerce and Lord Tapalo have not arrived."

I check my watch. It's 0929, one minute to spare. I try to flatten my hair back down and smooth out the wrinkles in my cloths, hoping that it doesn't look like I just ran through the palace. As always, Riptide is in my pocket, and I double check that Qui-Gon's lightsaber is still hidden beneath the Naboo jacket I'm wearing. Even though Obi-Wan did give it to me, I have a feeling that the Jedi Council wouldn't have approved, and as much as I love to annoy the Council, I do not have the time right now to deal with them. Plus, the Naboo are supposed to be a peaceful people, and as a Naboo ambassador, I probably shouldn't be openly wearing weapons. I sit at my desk in the office section and grab a random data pad trying to give the impression that I'm a responsible, knowledgeable adult and not some kid who has no idea what he's doing. At least Jar Jar isn't here to mess this up. He's showing a Gungan fisherman around Theed and introducing him to a friendly Naboo fish merchant. Hopefully, nothing will go wrong with that because I won't be able to help Jar Jar out this time.

The door to my office whooshes open, and the protocol droid walks in followed by two older men in traditional Naboo robes. The Minister of Commerce, Horace Vancil, greets me with a warm smile, "Ambassador Jackson, it is good to see you."

I smile back, "It's good to see you too, Minister." With his completely white hair, stern expression, but twinkling eyes, Minister Vancil is like the grandpa I never had, especially since the only grandfather I ever knew tried to kill me and destroy the world. Minister Vancil has been a huge help as I adjusted to my new job. He gave me lots of support and guidance, was willing to try some of my less traditional ideas, and for the most part was able to stop me from doing stupid things.

"May I introduce, Ras Tapalo from the noble house of Tapalo, leader of the Plasma Consortium" Vancil states just to be polite. Even though I have never seen Tapalo before, I know exactly who he is.

Tapalo has dark hair that's just starting to grey, a rather impressive beard, and a familiar, prominent nose. After all I broke a nose very similar to it. "Ambassador Jackson, it is a _pleasure_ to finally meet you," Tapalo sneers. I just smirk back. I get why the man dislikes me. I really do, but in my opinion his son got what he deserved. Plus, I have Tapalo Junior to thank for my new job which is why his dad has to call me ambassador.

After the Battle of Naboo, Padmé offered both Annabeth and I fancy positions in her cabinet. Annabeth took the job and became Padmé's personal advisor with the bonus of designing a commemorative victory arch. I did not take the job offer. After dealing with shady senators, greedy trade organizations, and arrogant councils, I did not want to deal with any more. Plus, unlike Annabeth I didn't read the news or follow politics. I'm not exactly qualified to advise anyone on trade agreements, taxes, ways to boost the economy, or making new laws. When I told this to Padmé, she just smiled in understanding but said I was selling myself short and that governments could use more people like me and less swarmy politicians. Instead, I went back to the university and helped the professors create accurate maps of the underwater tunnels. Even there, I couldn't completely escape from politicians because the tunnels were suddenly seeing a lot of attention due to the increasing trade with the Gungans and the possibility of new, cheaper interplanetary trade routes, but at least the professors were the unlucky ones that dealt with them.

Everything changed though about a month after the battle. It's a very long story involving two Gungans, a xenophobic restaurant owner, me making Gungan shoes out of my clothes, Ealos Tapalo (Ras Tapalo's pompous jerk of a son) who used to hit on Annabeth, and over 1000 years' worth of prejudice between the Gungans and the Naboo, all of which lead to me being in a fight. Even though Ealos Tapalo threw the first punch, I still got arrested. The Naboo have a very strict no disturbing the peace policy, so in a situation like this, both parties are punished. It also didn't help my case that Tapalo had a broken hand and nose while I didn't even have a bruise. Though, the broken hand definitely wasn't my fault. Tapalo just didn't know how to properly punch.

Guys you should never get arrested, but I suppose if you have to, then you should do it on Naboo. The detention centers are super comfy, like four-star hotel comfy. Anyway, after a night in the Theed Detention Center, a very amused Queen Amidala sentenced me to a month of community service as a Naboo representative among the Gungans since I was clearly very passionate about fair treatment for Gungans.

To my surprise I actually enjoyed the job and was decent at it, so after I served out my month, I was appointed the official Naboo Ambassador for the Gungan High Council sort of like the opposite of Jar Jar who represented the Gungans among the Naboo. Since it was Jar Jar, though, I've had to help out a lot on the Naboo side too. No offense to the Gungan, he means well and tries hard, but usually if left on his own it turns into an even bigger mess. For the past few months I've mostly just helped the Naboo who wanted to go to Gungan cities for whatever reason and helped Jar Jar with Gungans who wanted to go to Naboo cities. I sat in the Gungan High Council on a few important meetings and basically said what the queen wanted. I helped the Naboo create a more Gungan friendly atmosphere and develop laws against Gungan discrimination in restaurants and businesses, plus doing the same on the Gungan side. I stopped a few greedy Naboo merchants from making unfair deals with Gungan producers. But, my biggest achievement so far was stopping the Gungan mob from terrorizing Naboo villages. I did have to use my powers a little to scare the Gungan mob boss, but I figured more Gungan rumors about me being Gobba's chosen was better than the Gungan mob getting a hold in the Naboo cities.

Today, I'm supposed to supervise a very important negotiation for plasma mining between the Naboo and Gungans. Even though both Queen Amidala and Boss Nass want this new agreement for sustainable plasma mining, the details are going to be difficult to work out between the scientists and the Naboo and Gungan plasma merchants. To make matters worse, Tapalo's Gungan counterpart, Lyonie, is just as ambitious, thrifty, and proud as Tapalo though I don't think Lyonie is nearly as much of a jerk, and Lyonie actually likes and respects me. So, I will be there to pretty much make sure Lyonie and Tapalo won't do anything to start a war since quite a few of those have been fought over plasma in the past. But, because of my complicated history with Tapalo, Minister Vancil is coming to make sure the two of us play nice. All in all, it will be just another fun day in the office.

I'm about to say something really clever in response to Tapalo's sneer and sarcasm, probably 'So, has your son learned how to actually throw a punch,' but I notice Vancil's warning glare and stop. The minister's probably right. Even though the man has been indirectly giving me trouble for ages whenever he can (I'm pretty sure he's the leader of the anti-unification movement), I shouldn't antagonize him this early and so obviously, otherwise my job will be a lot harder. Instead of taunting him, I get a much better idea, so I smile what Annabeth calls my troublemaker smirk and say "Well, now that you're here let's get going." Tapalo looks suspicious and Vancil desperately shakes his head clearly trying to say no to whatever I'm planning.

I lead the two men out of my office and to the royal boathouse where there's a small fleet of Gungan submarines generously donated by Boss Nass to the Naboo ambassador. Sometimes, I really love my job. Although the three of us could fit in the small Bongo, I pick the luxury six passenger one. It has a sleek design with state-of-the-art Gungan technology, and I figure Tapalo won't be able to turn his nose up at the interior. Naturally, I take the pilot chair. Once my passengers take a seat, I fire up the engines. The subs' chronometer reads 0944. I glance at Tapalo and grin. He has no idea what he's in for because today seems like a great day to set a new record.

I quickly accelerate the sub to maximum speed and dive into the maze of underwater tunnels. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Vancil pull out a holographic map of the tunnels to show Tapalo something. I make a sharp right without slowing down and guide the sub through a narrow tunnel. Without my powers, we totally would have crashed, but to my passengers, it just looks like a super fancy maneuver. "Umm, Percy," Vancil asks, clearly worried enough to use my first name, "I think you took a wrong turn. This tunnel is marked unsafe on the map."

I grin, "Well, this is the quickest way to Otoh Gunga, and I figured someone of Lord Tapalo's station wouldn't want to waste any time. Besides, it's only marked dangerous for the wildlife." The wildlife hazard is mainly because the tunnel is too small for Bessie Jr to hunt in, so it tends to have a rather high population of dangerous sea creatures.

Right on time a huge, opee sea killer appears. Tapalo lets out a rather high-pitch scream as it opens its mouth and shoots out its tongue. I quickly jerk the sub to the left and downward. The tongue just misses us, and I control the current to push us past the creature at high speeds. I take another tunnel downward and almost run straight into the jaws of a colo claw fish. Luckily my underwater senses warned me, and I pull the sub up over the top of its narrow snout. Before the sub can scrape the top of the tunnel, I dive into a corkscrew around the eel-like body, letting out a whoop. This is way better than a roller-coaster. Suddenly, I sense the colo claw fish isn't alone. There's at least three more of them waiting to lunge out at us. "Oops, when did a claw nest get here!"

"This is a nest!" Tapalo squeaks.

I ignore him and close my eyes trying to focus on the currents around us. "I do not believe this," Tapalo shouts, his anger clearly giving him courage, "He has his eyes close."

"If you don't want to die, shut up." I mutter, concentrating on the feel of the water around us and sensing the anticipation of the hidden predators. The closest colo claw fish lunges, but I will the current to give us an extra boost, and it misses us. The other two try to block us with their bodies but I expertly weave between them. I can tell they are chasing after us, so I push the sub to it's max. I call for Bessie in my mind. "Almost there." We breakout of the tunnel into the more open underwater canyon surrounding the Gungan city. Sure enough, my big friend's waiting for us. She opens her mouth in a big grin, and we sail right by it. Tapalo's eyes are each as big as a cyclops' eye, and the guy looks like he's going to faint. Bessie's mouth clamps down on the closest colo claw fish, and she bats at the other ones with her webbed claws. _"Thanks!"_ I tell her telepathically. " _I hope you enjoy your breakfast."_

I keep the speed up until we reach the Otoh Gunga bongo docking area then perform a flashy stop that makes us all jerk in our seats. "Well, that was fun," I say with a huge grin. I glance at the chronometer, 0958, "And it looks like I set a new record between Theed and Otoh Gunga!" I look at my passengers, suddenly worrying that I might have showed off a little too much, but they both seem too distracted by our eventful trip to realize that no normal bongo could possibly have gone that fast.

Minister Vancil stands shakily, "Yes, well next time I would prefer the government approved route even if it takes an extra 18 minutes."

Tapalo nodded, clearly unable to speak at the moment. "Are you okay Lord Tapalo?" I ask not even bothering to stop smirking. "You look a little green."

The actual meeting goes about as well as I thought it would. Everyone argues over plasma percentages. Tapalo makes subtle and less subtle insults regarding Gungans. Lyonie walks out. I understandably get mad. Vancil corrects me for behaving unprofessionally and warns Tapalo to be respectful. I go after Lyonie and convince him to come back. Then the whole cycle repeats again and again. Even the food brought in for lunch doesn't help my mood. By 1430, I've had enough, so once I manage to get Lyonie back to the negotiation table for the third time, I say, "Look guys, I have a very busy afternoon and evening. I know this has priority over my schedule. But, I just want you to know that if we finish after 1500, I will have to take that shortcut back to Theed, so I can make up for lost time."

Tapalo immediately pales, "You cannot be serious. Are you suicidal? We barely survived."

I shrug, "Well we got through the first time, so I figure we _should_ be able to do it again. I have a lot of very important work to return to. Every minute counts."

"I will just ride in another sub," Tapalo states smugly.

"If that's your wish Lord Tapalo," I say with a smirk, "I'm sure I can find at least one Gungan, you haven't insulted yet who might be willing to take you back to Theed since besides me, the only other sub pilots here are Gungans."

Tapalo grimaces, clearly debating who are worse Gungans, who he considers inferior and barbaric, or me. I'm not sure if I should be offended when he decides I'm the lesser evil. After my ultimatum, he quickly agrees to a 50/50 split which I know Queen Amidala will be perfectly happy with. It's greedy Tapalo that wanted more. We are back in the sub right at 1500 with an almost complete plasma deal only missing Queen Amidala's signature since Boss Nass already signed it. "Oh well, I guess I don't have to take my shortcut this time," I say sadly, "But, a guy can always hope, we will be pushed for time the next time we all do this again." I wink at Tapalo, and the man glares at me. For Vancil's sake though, I make sure the trip back is smooth and uneventful. By 1540, I'm waiting for Annabeth at the speeder. She comes out a few minutes later, and we head back to the house.

* * *

Unfortunately, we don't have piloting lessons today. Porro Dolphe, one of the pilots in the Space Fighter Corps, has been slowly teaching Annabeth and I to pilot spaceships. Since Porro's super busy and so are we, we only meet three times a week, but Porro seems pretty confident that he'll have us flying like pros in a few months. Surprisingly, I actually enjoy flying spaceships even if I do still freeze up some during take-off and landing. In space, I'm pretty good minus the calculations for hyperspace jumps. I leave those to Annabeth and computers, but in the dogfight sims, I take out more enemy ships than Annabeth. Of course, she claims that it doesn't matter how many more ships I take out since I'm twice as likely to crash my ship doing some stupid, reckless maneuver.

Days like today are much less fun because instead of breaking the sound barrier and playing realistic video games, we meditate. Annabeth's convinced that we need to understand this outside Force that the Jedi and Sith use. Even though I complain a lot about it (after all meditation still isn't fun), and I'll never admit it to Annabeth, I get why we need to meditate. Besides helping me control my powers a little better and saving the plumbing when I lose my temper, I know between the Jedi and Sith in this universe that not knowing about the Force would be as bad for us as not knowing about the gods back home.

Even though the Jedi don't hide from mortals here, it's like they are still in their own world, and unfortunately, Annabeth and I are stuck in there with them because of our abilities. Sure, we know the basics about the Force, thanks to Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan, but I doubt the Jedi Council will tell us any more. Neither of us know exactly what Force-users can do which leaves us extremely vulnerable to both the Sith and even the Jedi if they ever decided to go against us. Could they use something like charmspeak? Would it affect us? Could we stop their telekinesis in a fight? How much of the future do they see, and can they see us now, or do our weird natural shielding block them? Not to mention the freaking lightning the Sith could use or other powers we don't know about. Plus, the biggest question, can we use this outside, surrounding Force?

That is the main reason why Annabeth wants to focus on meditation. I'm pretty sure she finds time to meditate even when we do have piloting lessons in the hope that she can learn to use this Force like the Jedi or at the very least, be able to move objects with her mind since it seems like we naturally have some of the other Force-abilities. Annabeth has never mentioned it, but I know it was hard for her sometimes back home, especially on the Argo II. All of the seven had these super cool powers except her. Despite this, she was still our de facto leader and kicked just as much monster and Giant butt as any of us which I think is her real super power. With enough time for planning and strategizing, I know she can take down any enemy using her smarts and determination. But, in this universe with this outside Force, maybe she can have cool super powers too.

By 1600, Annabeth and I are sitting in Panaka's small courtyard behind the house. It's one of my preferred meditation spots because the trickling fountain helps me focus. I close my eyes and take a deep breath trying to mentally prepare myself for whatever is about to happen. I used to think meditation would be boring, but for some reason, maybe the Force or just the way Qui-Gon taught me to meditate, every time is a little different and not always in a good way. Sometimes, I never leave what I consider _my_ water and stay near my imaginary Montauk beach. The sea is just too wild those days, and it takes too long to find the invisible barrier and make the water quiet enough to cross the border to the other side. Other times, I can easily pass through to those other, still waters.

When I picture Montauk beach in my mind today, the water looks perfect for swimming, calm for the most part but a playful wave every so often. I walk out onto the water and focus on quieting it down as I try to find the invisible barrier. I walk farther and farther from the beach, and eventually, the sea is as smooth as a pond in Central Park. Somewhere along the way, I realize that I can sense it, that feeling. I know I'm close. When I get there, I pause. Part of me doesn't want to deal with the other side today, but as usual my curiosity wins. I never know what I will see or feel over there. I take a deep breath and force the water around me to be completely motionless. Then, I step through the barrier.

Other than the ripples that fan out as I walk on top of the water, the surface is still, but beneath me I can feel currents pushing and pulling and swirling. Some days I try to follow the currents. Other days I try to ignore them. Today, I keep walking forward and brace myself. On this side, I sometimes sense feelings and emotions that aren't mine. It may be incredible joy or devastating sorrow and almost always a constant burning rage that seems to hover around. I have no idea where the feelings come from, but Annabeth thinks they are the emotions of sentient beings all throughout the galaxy. It can get pretty overwhelming, and I have a little more respect for the Jedi if they have to deal with that all the time.

Today, though, everything is calm and peaceful on this side. Even the anger isn't really here as if whatever causes it is distracted. My luck did not extend to the visions. Like the strange emotions, sometimes on this side of the barrier I see images in the water as I walk by, but those are less frequent and way more interesting than the strange feelings. I guess images is the wrong word, more like short video clips of what can only be the past or future. They are less like demigod dreams and more like Piper's knife Katoptris since they are quick flashes and seemingly unconnected. Annabeth gets them too, so it's not like I'm going crazy or anything.

In one, I see a slightly older Anakin laughing with another boy in Jedi robes. Perhaps the kid will make a few Jedi friends. A bit farther, the water shows Annabeth in the co-pilot chair of a spaceship frantically pressing buttons. As the ship goes to hyperspace, she smiles and says, "We did it." Well that also seems good, assuming these visions actually happen.

The next watery vision is not pleasant. There's a sandy pit filled with so many bodies and limbs, like hundreds of people were blown to bits. It's hard to even recognize the bodies. Some are human, and I notice the bright skin of Twil'elks, but there are many other species I don't know. Multi-color liquid soaks the sand and looks like paint, rust-red, blue, green, and orange. It must be blood. In the end it doesn't seem to matter what species you are because everyone bleeds, even gods. I get a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. Normally, I'm not squeamish. I've survived several battles, seen many gruesome injuries, and watched friends die. But, this is something else entirely. This is senseless slaughter. I don't want to look at this anymore. I want to wash it away. Instinctively, I somehow connect the current beneath me with the sea that's always inside of me and push outwards. A huge wave crashes into the vision in the water, breaking it up. But that just forms another wave that keeps going until I can't see it anymore. Cool, I didn't know I could do that! I'm about to try again, but I get a feeling that I'm in danger. That something is going on in the real world.

My hand flies to my pocket, and I draw Riptide as I open my eyes. Instinctively, I raise my sword just in time to block a blaster bolt from one of those training droids. I sprint toward it dodging blaster shots as I run. I leap and knock the droid down with the flat of the blade. Somewhere off to my left I hear blaster fire, but it stops suddenly. I turn and see Annabeth pointing her blaster in the direction of a second fallen droid. She glances at me, "Really, Seaweed Brain? The lightsaber would have been the better choice."

I smile sheepishly, not quite willing to admit that she's probably right. "Old habits. Why did they attack us anyways?"

Annabeth has that look in her eyes that she gets whenever she proves something particularly clever, "Well, I was curious if the Force would warn us of the danger while we were meditating, like Obi-Wan said it does for Jedi, so I set them to attack us anytime within a 30-minute range. Judging by both of our responses the Force did warn us."

I shrug, "Eh, I think it was my amazing demigod reflexes."

Annabeth just rolls her eyes, "I think the Force might be our amazing demigod reflexes."

"Whatever, I need a snack."


	27. Interlude IIB

**Thanks for all the reviews, favorites, and follows. This is the second part of Interlude II, and the last time I'm writing a narrative in present tense. Thanks for bearing with my writing experiments. The Tatooine folklore is based on Fialleril's "Chosen" and other stories where it is covered in much more depth and more beautifully than I could manage, so you should definitely check those out if you haven't read them yet.**

Interlude II – _A Day in the Life of a Demigod in an Alternate Universe by Percy Jackson cont._

By 1710 both Annabeth and I are in her room. I sit in a cushy chair with a Naboo laptop that Annabeth programmed specially to sift through all the information and recordings we receive from our spy mission on Tatooine. Annabeth is at her workstation with the astro droid Blue and some fancy diagrams pulled up on Daedalus 2.0. Padmé's letting Annabeth borrow Blue to help with her extra "projects." Right now, she's trying to build something for Palpatine's holoprojector that can trace the Sith's next hologram, and Blue has been a huge help with the actual building stuff, something Annabeth always preferred to let Leo or the other children of Hephaestus do whenever she collaborated with them.

Initially, she tried to use Daedalus 2.0 to back trace the original blackmail hologram that Palpatine had left us. It didn't work out too well. Apparently, the Sith managed to put some kind of extra sneaky Trojan horse in the message, so that if anyone tried to download the hologram, it would steal the data and shutdown the computer. Annabeth's pretty sure that if it had been any other computer in this universe but Daedalus 2.0 then the laptop would be fried, and the Sith would have all of our information. Luckily, a combination of Daedalus' genius malware protection, a little magic, and of course ancient Greek technology was able to stop the cyber attack before it reached any of the files. I mean, the Greeks did invent the original Trojan Horse after all.

Even though she managed to stop it, Annabeth wasn't too happy because it meant that the Sith was feeling out our strengths and weaknesses and now knew that the senator had given the message to someone with pretty impressive technology. Even by defeating the Trojan Horse, the Sith knew that someone, though hopefully not specifically us, was trying to stop the blackmail. To make everything worse, the holoprojector with the hologram sort of blew-up (definitely not my fault this time), so Annabeth was left with nothing. Now, the hologram tracer is pretty much our only hope at stopping the blackmail.

We haven't been having much luck on our "Spy on Hutts" project either. I always thought it would be so cool and exciting to be a spy with all the car chases, sneaking around, and cool fight scenes. Although, now that I think about it, that doesn't sound too different from being a modern-day half-blood. Anyways, I found out that real spy work is super boring. Before Project Blackmail popped up, Annabeth and I spent most of our time poring over the ridiculous amount of information we had gathered between Annabeth hacking into Jabba's computer system and Leo's spying bugs.

We did get some useful information from the computer. We learned all about the Grand Hutt Council and everything Jabba had on the other members. I just can't believe that even the Hutt's have a freaking council. It's like there literally is a council for everything in this universe. We also started to get an idea of who Jabba's enemies were and his allies. Unfortunately, a month after the Battle of Naboo, someone else, probably one of Gardulla's stooges, tried to hack into Jabba's computer system and was not very sneaky. The spy was caught, tossed to the vampire spider, and the whole computer system was rebooted which also destroyed Annabeth's spy virus.

Leo's spy bugs had much better luck though we did lose a few of them because several members of Jabba's entourage like to eat bugs and apparently can't tell the difference. We have managed to spread the bugs out more and now have a bug in Jabba's sail barge, two in his palace, and one in his Mos Eisley house.

The laptop I'm using compiles all the files and translates the Huttese. After a month, Annabeth developed a fancy algorithm to help target potentially important conversations which helps a lot, but it still is way too much listening to boring or downright disturbing conversations. Annabeth pauses in her work over the hologram tracer and asks, "Found anything interesting?"

I shrug, "It seems like Jabba's trying to get the location of a planet from a pilot. Not really sure why. The pilot is trying to ask for more money, and Jabba's not happy which means he's probably going to get fed to the Rancor as soon as Jabba gets the information out of him." It's a really common pattern we've seen. Probably 50% of the people that enter Jabba's palace get fed to one of his beasties or have some other sort of death match or public execution.

"Hmm," Annabeth twirls a strand of hair between her fingers. She does that when she's thinking. "Which planet is it?"

I'm not sure, but a few seconds later we both hear the pilot smugly say, "The coordinates for Da Soocha are –"

But, Jabba stops him before he finishes, "No, you fool put it on the data chip."

Annabeth immediately perks up, "He wants it kept secret. Why is Da Soocha special?" She minimizes the diagrams on Daedalus 2.0 and pulls up a search bar. I pause the spy recording and search the laptop for any mention of Da Soocha as well. I get a couple of hits. It seems for whatever reason Jabba has been looking for it for a while. Those conversations must have slipped through Annabeth's algorithm.

"Da Soocha," Annabeth says slowly sounding the name out as she waits for results. "I'm pretty sure it translates to Waking Planet in Huttese." Shmi's been teaching us both Huttese when she can. "Hmm, lets see. There's literally no information in the Republic's space maps which must be part of the reason why Jabba wants to keep it secret. However, it does pop up in the research of a sociologist who studies Hutt culture. Apparently, the planet is in the Cyax system which the Hutts seem to treat as sacred. The system itself has not been officially explored by the Republic probably because it's too deep into Hutt territory, and the Hutts refuse to explore it. They have several legends about the planets and the primary star which was the brightest one in the night sky of their original home planet on Var. In the legend of Da Soocha, the bright rays of Cyax blessed the supposed ocean planet, and the ocean came alive. They believe the whole planet is covered in an intelligent, living ocean."

"Wait there's a whole planet out there that's just one big ocean?" I ask amazed. Naboo was cool enough but to be on a planet that was just water! Man, that's like a dream come true.

Annabeth rolls her eyes, "Really, Seaweed Brain, that's what you focus on? Of course, there's ocean planets. Mon Calamari, Glee Anselm, and Ando are just a few of the more well-known ones. But, maybe we can use this."

I frown not liking what she's hinting at. "I don't think that's a good idea. For starters, pretending to be some sort of god is always bad, and Jabba doesn't really strike me as the religious type."

"Well, clearly he believes enough to search for Da Soocha. If you were, say a physical form of Da Soocha, it might get him interested enough to at least let us speak to him. Maybe, we can even get him to listen to something we say or threaten him." I snort at that idea. Annabeth's determined to find a way to convince Jabba to free the slaves. I'm not too sure that will work since Jabba seems smarter than he looks though that's not very hard. "Besides, you won't really be impersonating a god. You will just be presenting yourself as a manifestation of an intelligent, living ocean, which technically you kind of are. Although, I'm not too sure about the intelligent part," she teases.

"Hey!" I complain and throw a pillow at her.

Annabeth dodges then glances at the nearby chrome, 2000. "We should go help Shmi with dinner."

* * *

By 2100, we all sit down for Shaak pot roast with this universe's version of carrots, onions, and garlic. The food is great, and the overall meal is far livelier with Shmi here. She tells us how Jar Jar stopped in the machine shop with the Gungan fisherman and accidentally activated a malfunctioning droid that kept trying to serve everyone tea. We all laugh, even Panaka. For the rest of the meal, we talk about upcoming royal events and even some harmless neighborhood gossip.

Once the dishes are all put away, Panaka goes to his study while Shmi, Annabeth, and I head to the parlor for our Huttese lesson. After living in dorm rooms and tiny apartments most of my life, it's pretty weird to live someplace that has studies and parlors. Huttese is a hard language to learn, like way worse than conjugating Latin verbs, but Shmi's a good and extremely patient teacher. Plus, I really like learning insults since they automatically sound way more badass in Huttese. I'm pretty sure Shmi only agreed to teach me a few because she knows that's the best way to motivate me.

Panaka joins us around 2300. We wrap up with our lesson and settle down for one of Shmi's stories from Tatooine. It started about a month ago. One night, I think Shmi just really missed Anakin, so she told us a story. After that it sort of became a nightly routine. Sometimes she tells us fables about a tricky Jakrab outsmarting the evil Anooba, a wolf-like creature. Other times she recounts stories about the friends she had known or legends about slaves winning their freedom or tricking their masters. Before, I never stopped to think about Anakin's strange fascination with stories. I mean as half-bloods stories were literally our life, so it didn't seem unusual then. Now, after listening to Shmi's stories for weeks, I think stories are just as important on Tatooine for the slaves just for a different reason. Stories give the slaves a way to escape at least in their minds. They give the slaves hope and a sense of identity. Something, not even the Hutts can take away.

"Since everyone's had a long day, I will tell you a short one," Shmi says. "It is said that Tatooine wasn't always like it is. It used to be beautiful and full of life much like Naboo, but only the sand and suns remember a time when flowers bloomed, and water flowed freely. There is a special connection between a planet and its people, so when the land flourishes so too do her people. For a time, the sons and daughters of Tatooine lived peaceful, happy lives. They were free.

"Then, the outlanders came. Some of the new-comers where kind and generous. They shared incredible knowledge and technology and taught the sons and daughters of Tatooine how to reach the stars, but other outlanders were cruel and greedy. They brought slavery with them and stripped the land of its resources, its beauty, and its freedom. Some brothers and sisters rebelled and ran far into the wilderness, fighting the outlanders and those who serve them at every opportunity. Another group became scavengers, thriving off the machines the outlanders abandoned.

"But, the land and its people are connected. Ever since the first chains of slavery were forged on Tatooine, not a drop of water has fallen from the sky. The beautiful plants withered and died, and the oceans dried up as the outlander masters tried their best to snuff out the great spirit of the children of Tatooine." This is starting to sound like a very depressing story, and I'm used to Greek tragedies. "But the wisest of the children know that they must keep their hope alive in the secret chambers of their hearts, for the land and its people are connected. If all the sons and daughters of Tatooine, old and young, native and adopted keep the hope alive then a day will come when the ground will shake, and the masters will fear. The skies will weep, and the water will flow, and the children of Tatooine will know they are free once more."

At 2330 I'm outside Annabeth's door saying goodnight though my mind's still thinking about Shmi's story. "Do you think it's true?" Annabeth asks. "I mean I know a lot of deserts back home were oceans once, but still Tatooine?"

"It had oceans a long time ago," I say with certainty.

"How do you know?" she asks raising her eyebrows.

I shrug, "It was just something I could sense when we were there. It was like the land had an echo or a memory of an ocean."

"Only the sands and suns remember," Annabeth mutters to herself, deep in thought. "If that part's true, then maybe the slaves, the people, believe the rest of the story. Maybe, we could make it come true! It could help rally them. Let them know that now is the time to fight for their freedom." She bites her lip and then looks me in the eye, "Do you think you could do something like that?"

"I don't know," I admit. It's what I've been wondering since the end of the story. "Maybe, I can make the ground shake some, but the water. . ." I think back to the hot sands and the heat from the two suns and wince, "That's going to be really difficult."

Annabeth sighs, "It was just a thought. I knew the rain would be too hard since that's more Zeus' thing, but even just a pond or a saltwater spring suddenly appearing might be enough."

I shake my head, "Anything I make is going to evaporate almost immediately, as soon as the suns come up which is the only way people would really see it and believe. I just don't think I can make the sheer volume we would need on my own. That kind of effort, best case scenario, would drain me for days." I grimace as I remember how weak I was right after Mount St. Helens. If it wasn't for Calypso's incredible healing skills, I would have died. Then, I remember something else, "But, maybe I won't have to do it all on my own."

"What do you mean? It would be much less miraculous if we stole water from Jabba, and I don't think we can smuggle that much water in without someone noticing."

I grin as I realize this might actually work. "No, I'll use fossils, like I did back on the Triple G Ranch. It's hard to explain, but I guess fossils of sea-creatures still have, I don't know the spirit of the sea in them, and I can tap into that. It's way easier than generating my own water which is what happened in Mount St. Helens and almost killed me. With enough fossils, I think I can make some pretty impressive salt water even on Tatooine. It won't last forever, but it should get people's attention."

"That could actually work, Seaweed Brain," Annabeth smiles and kisses me. "I'm sure we could hire a group to dig up fossils on Tatooine. We might have to pay some kind of fee to Jabba for protection and what not, but he shouldn't be too suspicious of scientists looking for the remains of dead sea creatures. As long as the money's good, he should leave them alone. Plus, it will give us another source of what's going on over there besides the bugs in Jabba's residences."

I don't like the idea of giving Jabba money, but it would be pretty cool to dig up the very thing that would cause a slave revolt right under his triple chins. "We can figure out the details later," Annabeth says with a yawn, "but this might be what the slaves need to believe that they can be free. It would also help convince Jabba that you really are Da Soocha." She adds as an afterthought.

"I'll just leave all that planning to you, Wise Girl." I tap a finger on her cute nose. "Just leave the truly impressive part, you know actually making water on a desert planet, to me," I tease and then kiss her good night.

Something in my chest tightens as she gasps out, "Seaweed Brain," around my lips but I still turn away and head to my own room. Sure, I could have snuck into her room, but we've decided to respect Panaka's boundaries for now, unless there are nightmare emergencies. Maybe it's foolish thinking since both of us are extremely aware that we could die the next day for whatever reason, but neither of us want to rush any part of our relationship. It's just too special. Besides, when we do do It, it's not going to be hiding in one of our bedrooms. After all, I've got something of a reputation to live up to after our first kiss in a volcano, then the best underwater kiss of all time, and an anniversary date in Paris. With that on my mind, I finish getting ready for bed and lie down with a big goofy grin. Overall, it'd been a pretty good day.

* * *

Of course, a typical demigod day isn't complete without a demigod dream. This time, I'm in some kind of warehouse with boxes and crates everywhere. A few yards away, a dark hooded shape stands over someone lying in a heap on the floor. I've got a bad feeling about this. There's only one hooded shape in my dreams these days. He extends a pale hand, and the figure on the floor rises like someone is holding her by her neck until her feet dangle above the ground. I gasp as I recognize the bounty hunter that almost killed Annabeth. Her once white clothes are torn and stained with dirt and blood. All the fingers on one hand are bent wrong and so are her legs. I've seen enough injuries to know those are extremely painful fractures. She gasps for breath as if an invisible force is choking her. "I'll ask again," the hooded figure says in a familiar, creepy, nasally voice, removing any doubt I might have on who he is. "How did you fail to kill even a single little girl? You just had to kill one of them." He flings his arm to the side, and the bounty hunter's body follows the movement like a rag-doll as she's thrown into crates.

She lies motionless on the floor before slowly pulling herself up though she's shaking from pain, exhaustion, and fear. "I . . . I don't know, my lord. I know I had a direct hit on the blond. She stopped me from getting a shot at the queen, but I know I hit her. She should be dead."

"Well, she is quite alive, I assure you," Darth Sidious spits out before extending his hand.

"No, please," the bounty hunter begs. Blue-white lightning shoots out from the Sith Lord's fingers. The bounty hunter screams and writhes on the floor while the Sith chuckles. He lowers his hand, and the lightning stops.

The bounty hunter curls in on herself as Sidious walks towards her smoking body. "How is the Chase girl alive? Perhaps, your direct hits are not as lethal as you believe they are?"

She groans, but then in an act of defiance pushes herself up and snarls, "I hit her in a neck with a dart coated in Sennari. No one survives Sennari."

The Sith tilts his head to the side, "I believe you."

The bounty hunter slumps back down in relief. "However," Sidious continues. "That does not change the fact that she is still alive, and you completely failed." This time the lightning comes out of both his hands. The bounty hunter thrashes and screams while her body smokes. It goes on and on. The only sounds are her screams and the Sith's cruel laughter. She's in excruciating pain, but I can't seem to make myself look away.

Finally, it stops. The bounty hunter rattles out a painful breath and whispers, "Please."

The lightning returns. This time it's brighter, more intense. The bounty hunter's body twitches uncontrollably, but eventually the screams stop. When the Sith lowers his hands again, silence fills the warehouse, and the body on the floor is motionless. I don't need to check her pulse to know that the bounty hunter is dead.

"I was wondering when you would visit me again, young Jackson," Sidious says as he turns around to face me. Somehow, I'm much closer to him than I thought I was though once again all I can see is his chin. "I am most pleased that you had the opportunity to witness the punishment of this bounty hunter. Did you enjoy watching her suffer? After all, she was the one who tried to kill your . . . friend."

"No," I tell him. That's what the good guys are supposed to say isn't it? But, I don't sound convincing even to myself because a small part of me, that same dark part that liked choking Akhlys did enjoy it. That bounty hunter had hurt Annabeth, and part of me is glad that she suffered. And, that scares the Hades out of me.

"Do not lie to me, boy," Sidious scolds. "And do not lie to yourself. Your hunger for revenge and your satisfaction when she screamed bled through those rather impressive shields of yours. It is why you did not look away."

I don't like that he's in my head, so I push back. "You are the real reason Annabeth almost died," I accuse. "The bounty hunter was just a tool."

"I won't insult your intelligence by denying it," the Sith states coolly. "The bounty was for the queen. Chase was bonus if she could manage. The queen was in the way of my goal, and your friend is too clever for her own good. I assure you, it was nothing personal."

"Nothing personal!" I snarl. "You masterminded an invasion of my adopted home, caused the death of a friend, and hired an assassin to kill two more of my friends just in case the droid army and your crazy attack dog failed at killing us. You've made this very personal."

He chuckles that creepy, evil sounding laugh. "My what passion and anger you have, young Jackson. No wonder the Jedi fear you, especially since it seems you can access the Force on top of whatever other abilities you may possess. I was rather surprised to feel your clumsy efforts today since you usually seem so isolated during these little chats. Even my failed apprentice noticed your unusual separation, and he wasn't particularly observant."

"What do you mean, my efforts today?"

"I am certain every adept Force-user in the galaxy felt that wave you sent through the Force. Not particularly subtle." I wince, so that's what I did during meditation. "Your companion seems to be a bit more successful in her attempts. It is a pity the Jedi will not teach you more. No, they jealously guard their secrets and leave you two to stumble around in the dark. I am curious to what extent you can use the Force. I doubt either of you will ever be as proficient as a Jedi Master much less a true Sith Lord. You seem to have a very different relationship with the Force for some reason, but perhaps you can pick up a few tricks or learn to enhance the strange abilities you already have, under proper instruction, of course."

I snort, "And I suppose you could provide that instruction? How convenient."

"I am afraid I am your only choice, boy. The Jedi certainly will not do it. They fear your power and know they cannot control you. A day may come where they even try to destroy you. Perhaps the Council hopes we will end up fighting each other, so they will be rid of at least one of their challenges. Why play into their hands?"

I've been expecting this, for him to try and convince me that the Jedi are my enemy, but this is a pretty weak attempt. "Sorry, to burst your bubble about the Jedi's secret scheme Mr. Sith, but the Council clearly told us to avoid any direct confrontation with you. I think they want the pleasure of dealing with you themselves."

"And the Council is aware of how well you obey orders?" Sidious questions. Well he has me there. I do tend to do the exact opposite of what I'm told. But, it didn't feel like a manipulation. Even though I didn't like Master Window, he seemed genuine about his warning and so did Yoda.

"It does not have to be like this," Sidious continues. "I regret that my actions have put us at odds, but you are not my enemy Jackson. I only wish to destroy the Jedi. Under their guidance, greed and corruption have flourished while the people suffer. I am sure you have witnessed this yourself. The Jedi must fall for the good of the galaxy."

I don't want to admit it, but some of the Sith's points are similar to my own issues with the Jedi. But, I also know not all the Jedi are bad, and the Order could change. " _Like the gods changed?_ " a small voice asks in the back of my head. _"The gods were doing better when I left,"_ I argue back. _"Yes, but for how long? Even dad said they would try, but it wouldn't last."_ Yes, but what's the alternative? This guy? "I don't think taking over a planet with a droid army and trying to manipulate a chancellor election is ending suffering or corruption in the galaxy. If anything, your actions seem way worse than anything I've seen the Jedi do so far."

"Naboo was a necessary sacrifice. Sometimes things must be destroyed before they can be rebuilt. However, you shouldn't judge me too harshly, young Jackson. After all, you are not so different from me."

Now, its my turn to laugh, "That's a good one. I'm nothing like you."

"Is that true?" Sidious challenges. "We already established that you wanted the bounty hunter to suffer. I'm curious what you would have done if you had found her first." I remember when I killed Arachne in Tartarus, and I wished I hadn't killed her so quickly. I wanted that monster to suffer for torturing Annabeth. What would I have done to the bounty hunter? What would I do to this Sith who's the real cause of all of this?

"The only difference is that you fear your own power," he continues. "As Sith we take powerful names that reflect our true nature, but you already have such a name do you not. You hide behind that weak name Percy, but that's not your real name is it?"

"What are you talking about?" He couldn't possibly know.

He cocks his head to the side as if listening to something. "You cannot hide from your true nature forever. You will learn to accept it, Jackson. Or should I say Perseus, the Destroyer."

"How. . . how do you know that name?"

He chuckles again, "You will find that the Dark Side of the Force knows many things Perseus, and it tells me that one way or another you will help me destroy the current regime and build a new galaxy."

I wake up in a cold sweat still hearing the Sith's laughter. How could he know my name? He can't read my mind, can he? According to Qui-Gon and every Force-user I've met, my personal Force prevents that. Yoda was the only one that could kind of get around it. I glance at the chrono 2557. I should ask Obi-Wan, maybe he knows. I close my eyes wondering how hard it will be to go back to sleep. Annabeth was right when she said the Sith Lord would be Kronos good. I was expecting him to twist things and make me doubt the Jedi, so I would want to join him. I wasn't expecting him to make me doubt myself. Man, this day sucked.

 **As of now, I plan for the next Interlude to be super short, so hopefully it comes up in a week or so.**


	28. Interlude III

**Thanks for all the reviews (especially constructive criticism)** **, favorites, and follows. You can blame soul-sucking scientific writing for the delay, and I decided to delve more than I had anticipated into the complicated Obi-Wan/Anakin relationship and how it might be different. Part of the chapter was inspired by** **the newish _Master & Apprentice_ book** **by Claudia Gray and stormqueen873's masterpiece "Shadows of the Future," that still holds up beautifully 14 years later and reads eerily like Gray's book.**

Interlude III – _Obi-Wan_

Well, that could have gone better. Obi-Wan sighed as he watched the door close behind his Padawan, immediately releasing his frustration, pain, and guilt into the Force. Obi-Wan had sensed growing discontent between his Padawan and himself. Perhaps it was there even when they first returned to the Temple, but he had no idea it was this bad. Probably, because the training bond had yet to completely form which was becoming a source of concern. Even though he and Qui-Gon had not exactly gotten along in the beginning of his apprenticeship, they still had a training bond within a couple of weeks. At least it should be awhile before the Council assigned him another mission which would give him some much needed time to resolve these issues with Anakin, assuming Obi-Wan could figure out what exactly was wrong with his Padawan to begin with.

On the surface, Anakin seemed to be doing well. He was progressing through his classes at an impressive pace. In mechanics and piloting, the Masters had even decided to place him with younglings his own age. In his other classes, the teaching Masters thought it best if the boy did not needlessly rush his saber training, Force lessons, or academic studies. After all, there was a difference between knowledge and understand. While Anakin clearly possessed the knowledge, true understanding took time and patience. Apparently, that was something his young Padawan struggled with.

Only hours after his return to the Temple earlier in the day, Obi-Wan had met with the Council to debrief his latest mission. Afterwards, the Masters had informed him of an incident regarding his Padawan that had occurred in Obi-Wan's absence. Anakin had a rather passionate disagreement with the etiquette Master over the dinning customs of Kuat nobility, and it ended with Anakin calling the Master an old slimo. Understandably, Master Sayul had banned Anakin from his class until the boy learned to control his emotions and completed an essay explaining the importance of dinning etiquette for the Kuat aristocracy.

As Anakin's Master it was Obi-Wan's responsibility to ensure that his Padawan understood the seriousness of his transgressions so that he hopefully would not repeat them. At dinner Obi-Wan had attempted to address Anakin's behavior since he always invited Anakin to his living quarters to share the evening meal when he was at the temple. It was something Qui-Gon had always done.

Similar to their previous dinners, this one had started quiet and awkward with Anakin inquiring about his mission and Obi-Wan answering the questions though this mission had been just overseeing a treaty, so nothing too exciting for a nine-year-old boy. Then, Obi-Wan asked Anakin about his studies. Obi-Wan had hoped that this time the boy would open-up and discuss whatever had troubled him in the etiquette class, but Anakin had just replied with his normal, "They're good," response without meeting his eyes.

Obi-Wan had pushed, and the whole situation blew up in his face with Anakin venting his frustrations which included being in lessons with "little kids," why the Kuat nobility had "eleven kriffin courses at every meal" when there were others starving in the galaxy, and why Obi-Wan was agreeing with them and not taking his side. Then, he lashed out with words that hurt more than Obi-Wan would ever admit. Once Anakin had stopped shouting, Obi-Wan had reprimanded the boy for his loss of temper and ordered him to go meditate until he was calm enough to hold a civil conversation. Anakin had stormed out leaving Obi-Wan alone in Qui-Gon's quarters. No, not Qui-Gon's, they were his quarters now.

As Obi-Wan looked at the blank walls and empty shelves, he could not help, but picture all the knick-knacks and mementos that Qui-Gon had collected from all the planets he had been to. Perhaps, Obi-Wan should have requested different lodgings. Even though he had packed away all of Qui-Gon's stones, blankets, tea-sets, and wind chimes, the memories still lingered, haunting him. He tried to focus on what to do with Anakin. The two of them clearly were not connecting, but why?

His eyes fell on the metal wristband. Percy might be able to help. He had thought about contacting his friend several times over the past few months, but something had stopped him. He told himself it was because the Council would not approve of Percy influencing Anakin's training, even tangentially, but if he was being honest, it was not only that. Maybe, it had something to do with the feeling that he was letting Percy down. That his failure to connect with Anakin and be a good Master also meant he was failing his friend who had given up so much because he had trusted that Obi-Wan would take good care of Anakin. It was not just Percy. He was also letting down Qui-Gon and Anakin.

Regardless of his reservations, he did have to contact Percy, now. All the Jedi had felt the very noticeable wave he had made in the Force, and Master Yoda had tasked him with convincing Percy not to do something like that again, for his own safety not to mention for the peace and sanity of all Force-users in the galaxy. Before he could activate the wristband, Percy's voice came from the comm in a rather uncharacteristically serious tone, "Obi-Wan, we need to talk."

Obi-Wan quickly recovered from his surprise, "Yes, we do Percy. I was about to contact you, actually. I know you and Annabeth have been reaching out into the Force. The Council would rather you cease such ventures since no one knows how the Force might react to you, and it can be dangerous for untrained Force sensitives. However, I am aware that the Jedi have no right to request you to stop, and Qui-Gon seemed to believe that a deeper understanding of the Force would help you and Annabeth. That being said, you really must try not to draw attention to yourself. What you did approximately 16 hours ago was foolish and could be potentially dangerous since you did the equivalent of shouting 'Here I am' to every Force-user in the galaxy including the Sith."

"Yeah, I know," Percy replied. "Sorry for the disturbance and all. It was a complete accident, and I'll try not to do it again but can't make any promises since I really don't know what I'm doing. But, we've got a lot bigger problems than the Sith noticing me shouting in the Force. You might want to contact Kit and let him know that the bounty hunter he's looking for is dead. The Sith Master killed her last night in some warehouse."

"You had another vision?" Obi-Wan asked though he knew there was no other explanation. "From his last report, Kit lost the bounty hunter somewhere on Nar Shaada."

"Yeah, I had another vision, and it was probably my worst one ever, which is saying something."

As Percy described his dream, Obi-Wan's bewilderment increased. "So, you are telling me that this Sith Lord somehow knows this secret name of yours that no one else in this universe knows besides Annabeth and Anakin."

"Yep, pretty much. Just checked with Shmi, and she said Anakin never mentioned it. But, it's more than that. He somehow knew what it means too. I don't know how he could've since it's a Greek name, and I left that part out of the story when I told Anakin. Can he like read my mind or something?"

"In some cases, it is possible for a skilled Force-users to read minds so to speak," Obi-Wan explained, "but rarely to the extent to be able to distinguish a single name much less its meaning, and that is with the unprotected mind of a non-Force sensitive or perhaps a Force-sensitive with a strong connection to the would be mind reader. However, even an untrained Force-sensitive would notice something so intrusive. When you settled your Force-presence, the most Master Yoda could gleam from you were impressions and echos. The rest of the time, trying to sense just your intentions and emotions is like trying to predict the path of a single dust particle in the middle of a storm. I don't believe even a powerful Sith Lord would have been able to do much more than judge your mood even if he was standing right next to you, much less draw out something as specific as a name without you knowing." Percy's sigh of relief carried across the comms.

"As good as it is to know that the Sith Lord can't read Percy's mind, it does leave us with another problem," Annabeth stated. Obi-Wan had suspected that she had been there the whole time. "How could he have known Percy's full name?"

"That is troubling indeed," Obi-Wan mused. "I am not certain, but perhaps a spying device picked it up when one of you mentioned it? We know he has used them before both in the Naboo ship and then later those new models were found all over Senator Palpatine's office, like you predicted Annabeth. I do know that Anakin has not mentioned it in the senator's office where the Sith may still have spies because I have accompanied him every time the senator has invited Anakin for a visit."

There was a pause no doubt as the two half-bloods considered his words, and then Annabeth said, "I don't think that's the case. I've been checking for spying devices very regularly and have only found a few in the queen's offices. And even though I didn't think to check for them until right before we left Coruscant, I don't think he had spying devices on the ship before then. Otherwise, he would have known a lot more about everything including what Percy and I are which he clearly doesn't since every time he talks with Percy in his dreams he seems to be fishing for those answers. Plus, none of it explains how he knew the meaning. Besides when Percy told Anakin the story, I'm pretty sure neither of us have mentioned that name again. Percy . . . well he prefers being called Percy."

Obi-Wan frowned as he thought it over though his curiosity was definitely piqued about this mysterious other name of Percy's that apparently had some kind of deeper meaning worth the notice of a Sith. "There is a possibility that he could have gleamed it from the Force directly which is different from using the Force to read emotions or thoughts. And that is what he said, so perhaps he was being truthful."

"You mean like how you can feel the truth in the Force or see things from the past and future?" Annabeth asked.

"Yes, though it would be unusual for the Force to provide something so specific. I should ask Master Yoda since he is far wiser to the ways of the Force. However, it might help to know this mysterious name and its meaning. Also, I am curious why you chose to not use it, Percy."

There was only silence over the comm that lasted long enough for Obi-Wan to check the operation light to make sure Percy had not ended the call. No doubt Percy and Annabeth were having one of their silent arguments. He hoped Annabeth was on his side because she seemed to win most of those. Finally, Percy's voice came through, "My full name is Perseus Jackson. My mom named me after this famous demigod hero from the ancient days because the original Perseus was one of the few half-bloods to have a happy ending and not die some terrible death or get turned into a tree or something worse. She hoped it would be like a good luck charm for me. It's not that I don't like my name, and I'm grateful in my mom's faith that I'll beat the odds like the original Perseus. But, at the same time the name doesn't exactly feel like mine. Plus, it's a mouthful, and the only people who use it are my mom when I've done something really bad or monsters and evil immortals trying to kill me."

Obi-Wan nodded. He supposed it could be difficult sharing a name with a famous person, "I notice that you still have not told me the mysterious meaning of your full name."

Percy sighed, "Yeah, that's because I have a feeling you're going to freak out, and if you can avoid it, it would probably be best if the Council didn't know this part because they will definitely freak out and try to arrest me for some evil Sith prophecy or whatever. Just try not to read too much into it or anything. It's just a name." It might have been Obi-Wan's imagination, but it seemed like Percy was trying to convince himself too. "And I never really thought too much about what my name meant since all that really mattered to me was that I was named after the hero, until that Sith Lord threw it in my face last night. See, Perseus means the Destroyer."

And Obi-Wan did see. He started to realize why Percy was so shaken up, and what Percy probably left out when he had told him what had happened in the dream. Obi-Wan knew enough from his history studies that Siths had taken on new names to supposedly better reflect their character. No doubt this Sith had tried to convince Percy that he was destined to become his name. The Council may even think similarly since it was not too far of a stretch given the nature of Percy's Force usage and the sheer intensity of his presence. However, Obi-Wan knew Percy. He remembered the young man in the engine room that had asked for help because he was scared of what his powers could do, that they might one day harm innocents. That, more than anything else, had told Obi-Wan exactly what kind of person Percy was, and it wasn't a destroyer.

Obi-Wan realized that his friend must be waiting for him to say something. "It's just a name, Percy," he said softly. "You are many things. Some of your traits may not be encouraged in Jedi, but you are not a destroyer, no matter what the Sith said. You are not bad, Percy, despite what I might have thought when I first met you. You may not be exactly like the Jedi, but you are not like them either."

"But, I've got this I don't know darkness inside of me, Obi-Wan," Percy admitted. "The Sith knew it, and even Master Yoda sensed it."

"Everyone has darkness in them, Percy," he replied. "The difference is that you choose to fight it. Sure, everyone makes mistakes, even Jedi, but as long as you recognize it and try to fight it, try to make your next decision a little better and not one born from fear or anger or hatred, then you will never be like them."

"Thanks, Obi-Wan, I'll try to keep that in mind. You're a good friend, and based on the little time that I knew him, I think Qui-Gon would've been proud of that answer." After everything that had been happening with Anakin, he needed that reassurance almost as much as Percy had.

The conversation quickly turned to less serious matters as Percy and Annabeth filled him in on everything that had happened after the battle. "I still have trouble accepting the fact that you are a legitimate ambassador," Obi-Wan laughed, "especially after punching a lord's son."

"He started it," Percy huffed back. Obi-Wan was glad that everyone seemed to be doing well on Naboo and the planet was recovering nicely.

Afterwards, Obi-Wan told them about the several missions the Council had sent him on. Percy managed to tease him about something on everyone one. Obi-Wan had not realized how much he had missed this, the bantering and companionship. It had been too long since the last time he had laughed, and the sound seemed foreign to him. He realized then as he joked with Percy and Annabeth which was such a stark contrast from his interactions with others for the past few months that he had distanced himself from everyone including Anakin and his friends at the Temple while he grieved.

Finally, there was nothing left to talk about except for the one subject that all parties had been carefully avoiding. After a moment though, Percy, of course, broke the awkward silence, "Are we even allowed to ask?"

Obi-Wan knew what he meant, but he did not know how to answer. Technically, they were not communicating with Anakin which was the letter of the promise so to speak, but it may be bending the spirit of the promise. Plus, Obi-Wan was not sure if he wanted to tell them about his failure as a Master. But, on the other hand Percy knew both Obi-Wan and Anakin better than either knew each other. He might be able to help them. "He's adjusting as well as can be expected," Obi-Wan started hesitantly. "He is the oldest Jedi to ever be trained in almost a thousand years as far as I know. For the most part, he is doing well in his classes and is advancing rather quickly though he still has problems controlling his emotions and practicing patience."

Percy snorted, "Well that sounds like a report card. Is he making friends and fitting in?"

Obi-Wan was startled to realize that he did not know. He thought back to all his conversations with his Padawan but not once had he mentioned another Jedi initiate. He remembered stopping by the initiates cafeteria at midday a month ago to let Anakin know that he was leaving for a mission and recalled that the boy had been sitting by himself. At the time, Obi-Wan had not thought anything of it. "I do not think he has made friends, yet. Although, I cannot be certain, and he is still new and is taking classes with several different age groups."

"Well, if I had a random young friend who may be having trouble making friends in a new place," Percy started. "I might tell him to just stop bothering to try and impress the Nancy Bobfits and Sloans, and just ignore what they say or do. Instead, find the other outcasts because if the Sloans are shunning or picking on him then they are probably doing it to someone else too. Besides it's the Tysons and Grovers, that are truly worthy of a friend like my hypothetical young friend. But that's just my friendly advice, do with it what you want."

"That seems like you might be getting close there, Percy," Obi-Wan warned as he tried to make sense of Percy's advice. He could only assume that it would make sense to Anakin.

"We are communicating with you Obi-Wan," Annabeth reasoned. "We have no idea or control over who you may or may not decide to share our advice with."

"Somehow, I do not think that the Council would like the idea of Percy talking about a hypothetical, random, young friend," Obi-Wan grumbled.

Obi-Wan heard something on their end. "Well, I guess we got to go," Percy said. "Take care, Obi-Wan and try to have a little fun every now and then and make sure a hypothetical little friend has some too. He may be a bit more used to it than you are. And you don't have to wait to contact us until I've done something I'm not supposed to do. Otherwise, I may be inclined to make some big waves in the Force again."

"Bye, Obi-Wan, and Percy may be half joking with the fun bit, but he's not wrong," Annabeth added. "Anakin grew up differently than you. He is used to different things and is probably feeling as alone as you are, but unlike the Jedi he is used to showing emotions. For the rest of us, that's how we know someone cares. Such a drastic change may hurt and confuse Anakin. Make sure he knows how Jedi show that they care."

"I am not sure if I understand your meaning, Annabeth. Jedi care about everyone."

"How did Qui-Gon let you know that he cared about you and was glad that you were his apprentice?" Annabeth asked. "May the Force be with you."

"May the Force be with you both." Obi-Wan ended the transmission. Percy and Annabeth had given him much to think about, least of all, another report to write up for the Council regarding the bounty hunter and the Sith Lord.

However, the question about Qui-Gon lingered in the back of his mind. At the beginning of his apprenticeship, he was not sure Qui-Gon had cared about him or wanted him as a Padawan for that matter. Back in those days, his cryptic Master never seemed to make sense, and Obi-Wan had made more than one blunder because he did not understand Qui-Gon or his reasoning. Of course, Obi-Wan had later realized that Qui-Gon had cared for him more than he had known, and the two had become both partners and friends, forming a far deeper bond than most Padawans and Masters. Perhaps, Anakin was feeling the same way. He quickly sent the bare basics regarding the bounty hunter's death to the Council's information department, so they could immediately inform Kit just in case the Sith might set a trap. The full report would have to wait. He had a Padawan to find.

Instinctively, he reached for the training bond since that was the quickest way to find your Master or in this case his Padawan, but instead of the beautiful, vibrant bond that he had shared with Qui-Gon he found a flimsy thing that only informed him that his Padawan was alive. Sighing Obi-Wan opened himself more deeply to the Force and searched for Anakin that way. Luckily for him, Anakin's Force presence was as blinding as a sun's even in a place filled with Force-users.

Obi-Wan finally found Anakin at the top of the aquatic levels where the Jedi of waterworlds lived. This area was often used as a meditative retreat. There were some grass and trees beside several rocks and benches and even a small beach. Obi-Wan remembered coming here as a boy to swim with friends before he had become Qui-Gon's Padawan. Right now, the place was empty, except for Anakin's small form sitting in a grassy patch as close to the water as he could get without touching the sand. "Of all the places in the Temple, I did not expect you would come here, Padawan."

The boy shrugged though his eyes never left the water. "Something about all the water here is relaxing, like everything will be okay, and you did tell me to meditate."

Obi-Wan wondered if it had something to do with Anakin being from a desert planet or if the water reminded him of a certain demigod whose eyes just happened to be the exact same color as the water. Force, it even smelled like Percy in here since the scent of the sea always seemed to cling to his friend. "I really am sorry, Master," Anakin said quietly, but Obi-Wan could sense true remorse in his words. "It was mean of me to bring up Master Qui-Gon like that. And, you're my Master, I shouldn't question you."

There was a slight twinge in the Force when Anakin said Master, and he seemed almost subservient not just humble. Obi-Wan quieted his mind to listen better and was struck with a sudden and horrible realization. "I forgive you, Anakin. But, more importantly I need you to know that you are no longer a slave. I will never be your master in that sense. Yes, as a Padawan, it is important to obey your Master, but it should not be because you are forced to. A Padawan follows his Master as a sign of respect and trust that his Master is only doing what he believes is best for his Padawan to help him become the best Jedi that he can be, even if the Padawan is unable to see it for himself at the time. That is why you are allowed to ask me as many questions as you want, just please try to do it in private when possible, without shouting.

"In fact, Qui-Gon used to tell me that it is difficult to learn without questions." He smiled as the memory came to him. "However, it is impossible to learn if you don't truly listen to the answers. And, you should always ask questions respectfully otherwise your teachers may think you are being impertinent. That is how you got in trouble to begin with, I believe."

Anakin nodded sheepishly, but he also looked relieved. Obi-Wan wanted to kick himself. How had he completely failed to notice that Anakin, at least subconsciously, was still carrying around the bonds of slavery. "But what if the Master's answer doesn't make sense?" Anakin asked.

"Then let me know, and I will do my best to explain it until you do understand." Obi-Wan wondered what can of worms he was opening. He remembered Anakin's non-stop questions in the cockpit of the Naboo ship, but as the Master, it was his duty to make sure his Padawan truly understood everything necessary to be a Jedi.

Anakin nodded, but his eyes were back on the water. They sat in another uncomfortable silence before Anakin asked, "Is it truly wrong to miss them, Master? I mean isn't missing a sign of attachment and that's bad, but I can't help it. Sometimes, I just miss my mom, or Padmé's smile, or working on projects with Annabeth, or laughing with Percy, or Master Qui-Gon answering my questions in a way that makes sense. I don't know if I can pack everything away and forget them, like . . ." he glanced up then, but something in Obi-Wan's expression must have stopped Anakin from finishing his thought. "Sorry," Anakin muttered, "I didn't mean. . . I mean I just don't understand."

Before his talk with Annabeth and Percy, Obi-Wan might have left as the pain of Qui-Gon's death rolled over him again, and the revolting thought that Anakin thought he was forgetting his Master. However, now he realized how much he had inadvertently neglected Anakin. Annabeth was right. Anakin did feel alone and was hurting. Maybe, not to the same extent as Obi-Wan, but he still was, and it was his duty as a Jedi and a Master to help those who hurt. "No, Anakin it is not wrong to miss them, but you cannot dwell on the past and what you may have lost," he paused before offering up something personal, hoping it might help Anakin understand. "That is why I removed Qui-Gon's mementos. I was afraid the constant reminders of him would be too painful, and it would prevent me from focusing on the present, something a Jedi must always do. It was not to forget him because that is something I will never be able to do no matter how long I live."

"Did it help?" Anakin asked quietly. "Putting away Master Qui-Gon's things?"

Obi-Wan sighed, "Not as much as I had hoped."

Anakin nodded, "Annabeth said when we left that you might be having trouble without Qui-Gon, but you always seemed, so calm and collected, that I just thought. . ." he shrugged.

"Just because Jedi do not show emotions necessarily does not mean we do not have them, Anakin," Obi-Wan instructed. "I miss Qui-Gon with every fiber of my being, but I cannot let that emotion govern me. Therefore, I do my best to release it into the Force so that I may continue doing my duty as a Jedi."

Anakin winced, "I'm really sorry–"

"It is okay Anakin. You did not know."

"So, does releasing it into the Force help? Is that why you are always so calm?"

Obi-Wan tried a small smile, "I suppose so. However, it is hard work. I do my best to not let the pain of Qui-Gon's death build up, but I am afraid that as I struggled with it you might have felt ignored. For that, I am sorry. Even though Jedi try, we are by no means perfect."

Anakin nodded, "I think I get it, but maybe can you show me how you do it? I don't want missing them to hurt, but are you sure it won't make me forget them?"

"Yes, Padawan, it will not make you forget," Obi-Wan reassured the boy. "Very well then, first you need to enter a basic meditative trance. I know you have learned that in your lessons."

It took a while, but once Anakin's breathing had slowed and Obi-Wan sensed his Padawan reaching out to the Force, he said softly, "Can you feel my presence in the Force, Anakin?" The boy nodded. "Good, now focus on it."

Obi-Wan closed his eyes as he gathered the almost constant pain he felt from Qui-Gon's absence and released it into the Force. He did it slowly, so that Anakin could feel what was happening. It was like holding a handful of sand in a river and watching the current take it away. As it left him, he felt calmer, and in the quiet, he could hear the beautiful symphony that was the Force.

Next to him, he felt Anakin clumsily gather his pain of missing his mother and his friends and the boy's sadness and fear over Qui-Gon's death. He felt Anakin's trepidation as the boy hesitantly released those feelings from his soul, and they too were carried away by the Force.

Obi-Wan opened his eyes and smiled at his Padawan, "Very good, Anakin. How do you feel?"

Anakin scrunched up his face for a moment as he thought before saying, "Lighter, I feel lighter."

"So do I." They sat in silence, but for a change it was not awkward. Eventually though, Obi-Wan had to ask, partially out of his own curiosity and partially because of Percy. "Anakin, have you made friends with other Jedi initiates?"

The boy looked down at a piece of grass in his hands, but Obi-Wan could still see the flushed cheeks as the boy shook his head, embarrassed. "It will be okay, Anakin. I know it cannot be easy, given the nature of your training, just be patient," Obi-Wan advised. "I am sure you will find friends with time."

Anakin just nodded his head but did not look up as he tore the blade of grass into smaller and smaller pieces. Obi-Wan frowned at the sadness and uncertainty rolling off Anakin. In this case, Obi-Wan agreed with Percy. Jedi initiates needed friends and comrades, so he decided to take the plunge figuring at least in this circumstance, Percy's advice, whatever it meant could hardly make it worse. "I did speak to a mutual friend of ours earlier, and his advice for anyone trying to make friends in a new place was to ignore the Nancy Bobofits and Sloans and try to find the outcasts. Then he mentioned something about the Grovers and Tysons being far more worthy of friendship." Anakin's head shot up, and he looked at Obi-Wan in shock. "Does that mean something to you? Because it makes no sense to me."

Anakin nodded, but this time he saw hope in Anakin's eyes. "Yes, it does. He means that the popular, cool kids that bully people really don't make the best of friends. Did this friend say anything else?"

Once again, Obi-Wan hesitated. In the end though, he decided to take Annabeth's interpretation. His friends had talked to him, and Obi-Wan was the one communicating it to Anakin. Besides, he figured hearing that his mom and friends were happy and doing well might help the boy. So, Obi-Wan told him.

Seeing the wistful look on Anakin's face afterwards though made Obi-Wan question his decision. Perhaps, the boy would rather be on Naboo. "Do you regret coming to the Temple, Anakin?"

Anakin scrunched up his face, "I don't know yet. I like the training, flying sims, and other things."

"I am surprised you did not mention your etiquette class," Obi-Wan teased. Anakin glanced up in confusion but caught sight of his master's smirk.

"Very funny, Master," he retorted with a huff, but the corners of his mouth twitched upwards.

"However, I hope you do not feel as if this path was forced on you, Anakin," Obi-Wan stated his tone once again serious. "You do have a choice."

The boy nodded, though he seemed weary and hurt for some reason. Obi-Wan could not figure out what had caused the change. "I know," he replied. "Percy gave me a few other options, but I wanted to be a real Jedi."

"Of course, Percy would have encouraged you to not join the brainwashed police cult as he calls us," Obi-Wan said unable to stop an eye roll even if it was undignified for a Jedi Knight. That got another almost smile from the boy. "I am surprised you still came to the Temple with him nagging you about it."

"I actually don't think he was trying to discourage me from joining the Jedi, exactly," Anakin admitted. "It was more making sure I knew I had a choice." He frowned, "I don't think he really got one."

Obi-Wan thought about everything he knew from Percy's rather difficult life and figured the boy was right. He remembered how calmly the younger man accepted the fact that he would probably die an early death. In a way, that sure acceptance of death was what all Jedi hoped to achieve though many struggled with it. However, Percy's acceptance of other's deaths, particularly those he had formed close attachments to, was a different story.

"Do you not want me as a Padawan? Is that why you asked?" Anakin asked tentatively, interrupting Obi-Wan's thoughts. "I mean you didn't really have a choice and are stuck with me because of some promise you made to Master Qui-Gon."

Obi-Wan remained silent for a moment. It was a rather perceptive question and required him to search his own feelings to give the boy a true answer. He felt it would betray the delicate trust budding between them if he responded with a half-truth. At last Obi-Wan replied, "It is true that I promised Qui-Gon that I would train you, but I do not regret it. However, I do regret that I may not be truly ready to have a Padawan. Perhaps, you would be better off with a more experienced Master."

Anakin frowned as he considered his words. "But, Master Qui-Gon wouldn't have asked you to train me if he didn't think you were ready. Would he?"

Obi-Wan wondered if that was true. He had originally been hurt more than he would like to admit by Qui-Gon's last words which had made it seem like his Master only cared about Anakin. Maybe from a certain point of view, Qui-Gon was trying to tell Obi-Wan that he was proud of him in the little amount of time he had left. For someone who believed so strongly in the prophecy, that his Master thought he was worthy to train the Chosen One would surely be the highest praise Qui-Gon could ever give him.

 _Or he could have just wanted to guarantee that the boy got trained at all even if it meant I had to leave the Order_ , his more cynical side thought. He supposed he would never know for sure. Maybe, the real reason Qui-Gon had made that request did not matter. It mattered more what Obi-Wan chose to believe. After all it would not have been the first time Obi-Wan had misunderstood his Master, and he had a feeling it would not be the last despite that Qui-Gon was no longer with him. Suddenly, he felt lighter than he had in months as if a huge weight had been lifted off his chest. His Master had been proud of him and believed he could train Anakin. That was what Obi-Wan would believe.

"I suppose you are right, my Padawan. Thank you for helping me see that." Anakin smiled at him, the first real smile Obi-Wan had seen from the boy in months. It probably was because he had just talked to Percy, but Obi-Wan found himself saying, "Perhaps, we have gotten off to a bad start and for that I apologize, so let us try again. Hello, I am Obi-Wan Kenobi, and I would like to be your Master if you would have me?"

He extended his hand to Anakin who grinned as he shook it and said, "Pleased to meet you. I'm Anakin Skywalker, and I think it would be great to be your Padawan."

Obi-Wan felt it then, the training bond snapping into place, and Anakin gasped as he felt their new connection in the Force. It was not as bright or as strong as the one Obi-Wan had with his Master, but it was there and had the potential to grow and strengthen a little every day.

Now for a little fun. He did know how to have fun. Though, he did find himself mentally asking what would Percy do. He glanced at the water, and the idea came to him. "Padawan, I think it is time you learn how to swim."

 **I'm not sure when the next chapter will be posted, but it will probably be at least a month. I know what I want to happen, but not how so that will take some time to figure out. I will tell you that the next portion will be an Annabeth POV followed by a Percy POV.**


	29. Interlude IV

**Thanks for all the reviews, favorites and follows. I'm still not happy with this chapter b** **ut decided to go ahead and post it anyways since it has been a while and it might take me forever to pinpoint what is wrong and fix it** **. This chapter just seems overly complicated for some reason, but I want to move on with the story.**

Interlude IV – _Annabeth_

Annabeth sighed as she stepped off the ship's entrance ramp and onto the landing platform. Even though she preferred the more diverse architecture of New York City, she had to admit that Coruscant was the more beautiful city at night. They had arrived just as the sun was setting, and the lights of the city came alive. Somehow those lights turned the towering gray monoliths into something more.

Percy also sighed, but she knew he wasn't admiring the view. "Do we really have to do this?" he asked.

"Yes," she replied as she grabbed his hand and pulled him off the ramp even though he was pretending to resist. "And you know why. Even if it wasn't for our special project, you would still be here to petition for Gungan representation in the Senate."

"That doesn't make me like it any better," Percy muttered as he gave up on resisting and walked with her toward the waiting air taxi at the end of the platform.

"Besides, I thought you were warming up to Senator Palpatine at the end of that dinner," Annabeth said. "And now we know he's just a victim in all this." Even with the wind and noisy air traffic, Annabeth still lowered her voice just in case.

Percy snorted, "I don't think that guy is ever truly a victim. He reminds me too much of a shark. And even if he seems more. . ." he scrunched up his eyebrows in that cute way of his as he tried to name what he was feeling, "relatable, I guess, that still doesn't mean I want to spend the next two days with him."

Annabeth had no response to that. Percy had a way of seeing beyond what people wanted him to see. Sometimes even wisdom had to listen to gut instinct. Because of this, she had considered the blackmail from every angle she could think of, but she had predicted it months earlier and the motivation and logic behind it just made sense.

From the Sith's perspective, it was a good move. Palpatine was a skilled politician who had proven that he could convince other senators to back his agenda, a necessary requirement for a successful chancellor, one the current chancellor clearly lacked. The nature of the blackmail also prevented Palpatine from going to the Jedi for help, and if Palpatine hired bounty hunters, they would just as likely turn against him as they would stop the blackmail. However, that did leave her and Percy. Although they weren't in the equation when the Sith Lord would have developed this strategy, they were now. It was likely that Dath Sidious at least suspected that Palpatine had enlisted their help, particularly after that nasty Trojan horse. Therefore, the blackmail could also double as a trap for her and Percy. It was something Kronos would have done, and Sidious clearly was trying to recruit Percy, much to her boyfriend's annoyance. They would have to be careful.

Another option had crossed her mind, if Palpatine was somehow in league with the Sith. But, someone basically blackmailing himself was just ridiculous she had decided. Why go through the elaborate charade? If the Sith wanted Percy or her, either dead or alive, there were far simpler ways to go about doing it than fake blackmail. It just didn't make sense, unless the Sith had always intended to blackmail Palpatine. Plus, she had Obi-Wan check Senator Palpatine with the Force before he left Naboo, and he hadn't sensed any Dark Side or even malicious intent from the senator, not at all like Darth Maul. There really was no reason to distrust the senator anymore except that he reminded Percy of Octavian. All her suspicions about the Trade Federation's attack on Naboo to get Palpatine elected had been confirmed, even the motivation and blackmail. Hopefully after this trip, they would know once and for all if Palpatine was up to something more sinister.

Her thinking was interrupted by their third companion who stumbled down the ramp and would have tumbled right into Percy if her boyfriend hadn't nimbly sidestepped and steadied the Gungan, "Thank yous."

"No problem, Jar Jar," Percy said with a smile. "It keeps me on my toes." R2-D2 followed Jar Jar with an annoyed beeping. Annabeth had learned enough binary over the past few months to understand that Percy wasn't the only one Jar Jar had almost crashed into. Percy was right about one thing: it would be a long two days.

It had taken a month for her to finish a full proof holo-tracking device that did everything she needed it to. Gods, did she miss Leo. He could have probably done it in a week. It had taken another month to organize everything politically to officially petition the chancellor for a Gungan representative in the Naboo delegation which provided Annabeth with a legitimate reason to visit Coruscant and install the tracker herself. With the possibilities of spies in Palpatine's staff, she didn't want to risk sending it because if the Sith suspected anything then he would not send a hologram and her grand plan would be finished.

"Please, Percy, be on your best behavior," Annabeth warned before they got within hearing range of the air taxi pilot. "Senator Palpatine is the favorite for the chancellor position, and his help would be invaluable with our fight against slavery. Helping him with his problem will go a long way, but you need to be nice to him too."

"Fine, I'll 'talk cordially' as he says," Percy grumbled.

The ride to Palpatine's suite in the _500 Republica_ passed in a blur of architectural marvels. This time, since it was just she, Percy, and Jar Jar, Annabeth embraced her architecture nerd. She gushed over the Senate Rotunda, "It has a diameter of two kilometers! That's over six times larger than any dome back home." Percy's eyes glazed over after the first minute, but he still nodded his head and said, "Cool," whenever she paused for breath. She thought it was sweet that he at least still pretended to listen, even after all these years.

One of Palpatine's aids met them at the dock and showed them to their rooms. It seemed that Annabeth and Percy would be sharing. Neither of them complained. The aid informed them that the senator would meet them for dinner in an hour and then left. As soon as the door closed behind the woman, Annabeth pulled out Daedalus 2.0 in tablet form and scanned for surveillance bugs in their room.

Percy groaned, "Gods, I forgot how red this place is!"

"So that's the real reason you never liked Senator Palpatine," she said with a smirk. "You don't like the color scheme of his interior décor,"

Percy grimaced and extended his hands to encompass the rather large room dramatically pointing at the red carpet, the red walls, and the red ceiling. "I mean this is even worse than the Ares cabin."

"Please, this is decorated far more tastefully. To even think of comparing that barbed wire monstrosity to this. . ."

Percy flashed her that lopsided grin of his that always meant trouble and pointed at a large black statue of a woman in the expressionist style. "I don't know. That statue of a lady melting into the block is pretty disturbing. I think I'd rather the stuffed boar's head. You think we can turn it around? I won't be able to sleep with her looking at me."

That made Annabeth laugh so hard she almost dropped the tablet. "Gods, Percy," she gasped, "what am I going to do with you."

He looked so happy then, like making her laugh was a huge achievement. However, he ruined it a moment later by wiggling his eyebrows and saying, "I can think of a few things."

Annabeth felt her cheeks blush, but she turned back to her tablet to continue the scan, "Seaweed Brain, you have absolutely no tact."

"Tact seems overrated," he retorted with a smirk and headed to the sleeping area where he plopped on the king-sized bed and stretched out with a loud sigh. "A guy could get use to this! It's like lying on cotton candy."

Annabeth checked the readings then placed the tablet on a table. She looked at her boyfriend who appeared so relaxed and peaceful with his eyes closed. She knew he hadn't been getting the best sleep ever since he saw the Sith kill the bounty hunter. Her own dreams had been slowly getting worse as well. Nothing as vivid as Percy's, but she did hear voices, suggestions, ideas. She wasn't sure what to make of them yet. It could just be the result of her opening up to the Force more. "You do know the comforter is red," she teased.

Percy grumbled something, but Annabeth still heard, "worst color," and, "more blue," quite clearly. When he sat up and opened his eyes though, the teasing light was gone. "Is the room all clean then?"

"Yes," she said as she sank onto the bed next to him. "Except for Palpatine's own surveillance."

"You mean he's spying on us right now?" Percy asked incredulously.

Annabeth nodded, "The cameras target the door and windows for security purposes, I guess, and the mics are probably there to collect useful information on the guests."

"Who spies on their own guests?"

"Politicians," she said with a small smile.

Percy just groaned again and collapsed on the bed.

* * *

Like everything else in the suite, Palpatine's dining room was luxurious but elegant, and of course red. Dinner started out rather awkward. While Palpatine's small talk may have helped break the ice among politicians, it was not well received by Percy.

"I hope you found your accommodations to your liking?" Palpatine asked after inquiring about their space flight to Coruscant.

"Well, I would like them a lot more if it wasn't for the complimentary spy cameras and mics," Percy replied, the sarcasm practically oozing from his words.

Annabeth wished she could have shaken Percy right then. That wasn't how you addressed it. In fact, such things were better left unaddressed. They knew about the surveillance, and Palpatine knew that they knew.

"You are as blunt as ever, young man," Palpatine said with an amused smile. At least the senator didn't seem too offended by Percy's rudeness. "However, I have found that the surveillance is necessary for the safety of my guests. I am sure you are aware how dangerous galactic politics can be. Why three years ago, there was an assassination attempt in that very room. In addition to the security benefits, the surveillance also allows my staff and myself to better meet the needs of our guests. If it makes you feel uncomfortable, I will of course deactivate it during your stay."

"Yes, that would be nice," Percy stated.

"Then consider it done. As a host and friend, I only wish for you to be as comfortable as possible," Palpatine promised.

Percy started to say something, no doubt to request that Palpatine change the red color scheme to blue, so Annabeth hastily said, "Thank you very much Senator, we greatly appreciate your hospitality."

"You are very welcome, my dear," Palpatine replied with a conspiratorial smile and a wink. "I am just glad you managed to get here at all. I must admit that I thought you would have trouble obtaining the necessary unanimous vote from the Parliament in order to petition the chancellor, especially since Ras Tapalo is a representative, and his faction makes up 22% of the Parliament body. I know Queen Amidala believed that she would need to change the law from a unanimous vote to a majority in order to add a Gungan representative to the Naboo delegation for the Galactic Senate. That would have taken an additional two months at the very least even with her soaring popularity."

"Tapalo did give us trouble," Annabeth admitted. "But then we offered him something he thought he wanted in exchange for the votes."

"I am intrigued, what would an anti-unificationist want enough to give Gungans representation in the senate?"

Annabeth smiled. It had been one of her and Percy's more brilliant plans, "Plasma. The Gungans agreed that all off-world trading of their plasma would go through the Plasma Consortium which would receive 20% of the plasma as commission."

Palpatine frowned, "That seems rather generous of the Gungans though I suppose even a junior representative in the Galactic Senate is invaluable."

"Yes, it was generous. Tapalo was suspicious, especially since we sprung a fully signed agreement on him which according to Gungan customs meant he only had 26 hours to ratify it. Otherwise, the offer would be retracted since the Gungans would be insulted. Tapalo spent that time making sure the agreement would be binding for the next 10 years. Then, he agreed to the deal. Maybe, it was because he assumed Percy and I are children or that Gungans are not as intelligent, but he never stopped to ask the more important question: why the Gungans were willing to offer the commission and trade advantages to begin with," Annabeth explained.

Palpatine looked expectantly at Annabeth to answer the question, but she nodded at Percy who was grinning. He should be the one to brag since this part had been his idea. "Tapalo didn't realize that unlike the Naboo, the Gungans don't actually want to trade their plasma. They consider it a sacred gift from their gods. Not only do they use it to power their cities, but it literally makes their cities. They also use it in everything from artwork to weapons and even food. Isn't that right Jar Jar?"

"Uh-huh," Jar Jar said as he stabbed his fork at the roasted gorak, an Alderan delicacy. "Wesa use it in Umi-yumi and Nommi and to make Adder moss chips." As Jar Jar listed the foods, he flung his fork around and the meat flew off the utensil. Annabeth barely had time to duck the projectile. "Opsies." In the excitement of the flying meat, Jar Jar dropped his fork on the ground. He bent over to retrieve it, but then hit his head against the table. Both Annabeth and Percy managed to grab their water glasses just in time. Unfortunately, Palpatine did not have demigod reflexes. His red wine spilled all over the table along with Jar Jar's drink.

Palpatine waved off Jar Jar's apologies as he called for an attendant to help with the mess, but Annabeth could read the annoyance in the senator's expression. And Percy being Percy of course had to say, "Well, at least you don't have to worry about staining your **red** placemat."

* * *

After dinner, Palpatine invited them to his office to discuss some issues before the meetings tomorrow. Annabeth pulled out Daedalus 2.0, still in tablet form, and scanned for unfriendly surveillance devices. She found three. One was the same model she found on the Naboo ship all those months ago. Those generated noticeable heat, so they should be relatively easy to find assuming you knew to look for heat and not some sort of communication signal. Whoever placed this one had cleverly hidden it in one of Palpatine's lights by his desk to disguise the bug's heat signature which was probably why it was missed by the senator's surveillance sweeps. Luckily, the Daedalus Surveillance Detection App used several different detection techniques besides heat including sensing a wide range of radio frequencies, infrared, x-ray, hyperwaves (she had to manually add that feature), and an energy she thought might technically be defined as some kind of magic.

The other two bugs, one on the table in the sitting room and one hidden on a statue by the desk, looked like they were a new type, an upgraded version that had fixed the heat design flaw. They would have been difficult for conventional tech to find, but she could use this new model to feed the Sith Lord false information. For that to work though, she needed him to think that she couldn't detect this new design. Unfortunately, she also needed a place to talk to the senator and install the holo-tracker without the Sith knowing which meant that the surveillance device in the brown cat-like statue had to be removed, discreetly. Percy peered over her shoulder at the tablet screen, and she circled the bug she needed him to take out before quickly scrawling on the touch pad, _Accident_ in Greek, and then erasing it. She was grateful that Percy resisted the urge to smirk though she saw it in his eyes. Percy excelled at causing accidents, particularly destructive ones.

"Has my security team found all of the Sith's surveillance devices?" Palpatine asked, looking at her. "I assume you were checking."

Annabeth nodded, "It looks like they did a pretty good job, but like I just showed Percy, they missed this one." She walked over to one of the silver upright lamps near the desk. Percy grabbed the stand and lowered the top, so she could remove the tiny device on the light source. She dropped it on the floor and crushed it beneath her heel.

"Thank you, my dear." Palpatine said with a small smile. Annabeth returned the smile just to prevent herself from grimacing. Chiron was the only one who called her, 'my dear.' From anyone else, it just seemed patronizing. "I hate to think how much the Sith overheard using that device or how much more he might have. I suppose we should go over your schedule now that we do not have any unwanted eavesdropping." He walked over to his desk and sat behind it. Percy grabbed Jar Jar just in time to stop him from poking one of the huge pearls Palpatine had on display and dragged him over to the seat farthest to the right, the chair closest to the statue with the hidden spying device. Percy took the seat in the middle, so Annabeth took the one on his other side and recited their itinerary.

"Well, it seems like you meet with all the necessary people before the official request with adequate time to stroke egos and flatter," Palpatine said. He gave Percy a rather sharp look since her boyfriend was leaning back in his chair to the point that the front legs were off the ground. Percy of course ignored this. This particular posture was a rather bad habit of his whenever he sat in a chair for longer than five minutes. "I think this whole process should go rather smoothly."

Annabeth nodded, "I agree, but if you don't mind, I would like you to take a look at the speeches just to be sure." As she and Palpatine discussed minute word changes she could tell that both Percy and Jar Jar were getting increasingly board and restless. Percy elbowed Jar Jar to get his attention and then lifted his feet off the ground, so that he was only balancing on the back legs of the chair. She hated when he did that. If she wasn't in front of the senator, she would kick the chair out from under him. Then Jar Jar thought it would be a good idea to do it too. The Gungan immediately tipped the chair too far back and flipped over crashing into the brown cat statue with the hidden surveillance device. The statue shattered into hundreds of pieces.

Annabeth stared, shocked. Sometimes Percy really was brilliant. The whole thing had proceeded so naturally that if she hadn't been the one to tell him to do it, she would have sworn that the whole think was an accident brought on by Percy's boredom and Jar Jar's infamous clumsiness. "Oops Whoosie, mesa sorry," Jar Jar said as he stood and looked at the mess.

"I'll help," Percy volunteered. He dove down and quickly started gathering pieces, paying particular attention to where he stepped.

Palpatine finally found his voice before Jar Jar could start helping Percy, "Do not touch it. You have done enough damage to a priceless artifact already." The livid tone made Annabeth glance at the senator. The usually calm and collected politician was furious.

Percy noticed the intensity of the senator's anger as well and pulled Jar Jar away from the statue and the desk. "We are really sorry, Senator," Percy apologized. "Jar Jar and I will go back to his room and practice the speeches for tomorrow. Just send me the new version with the changes." He said that last part to her. As he made eye contact, he gave her a small nod. To most onlookers, it could just be a nod farewell, but Annabeth knew that it meant Percy had crushed the bug somehow when he was cleaning up the statue.

After they left, Palpatine sighed and looked at the ruined statue, seemingly lost in contemplation of the broken fragments. "I know I can't replace it," Annabeth hesitantly started, "but if there's anything I can do, Senator, please. . ."

Palpatine stopped her with a wave of his hand, "What is done is done. Although, this particular piece was a prehistoric carving from a colleague's planet." Annabeth winced. She hated the idea that she had assisted in the destruction of history. Palpatine returned to his seat and seemed to collect himself so that once again he was the calm politician. "The staff will clean it up before tomorrow. Now, where were we?"

"I think we have perfected the speeches, and now, it's safe to move onto other things," she said quietly and pressed a side button on the Daedalus tablet. A thin circular device popped out, her custom made holo-tracker.

"What do you mean?" Palpatine asked

"Well, I couldn't very well put this in with a surveillance camera so close to the desk," Annabeth whispered. She carefully lifted Palpatine's holoprojector that was just to the left of her and attached the tracker to the bottom. She pressed a button to activate her device and returned the holoprojector to its original position.

"The statue –"

"Yes," Annabeth interrupted, "And there's one on the table in the sitting area. Although the auditory range is rather good, I believe we should be okay here as long as we talk quietly. It would probably be good if we had a valid excuse to continue discussing things though. If I was the Sith, I would be extremely suspicious of any mysterious conversations I couldn't hear."

Palpatine nodded his head in understanding and in a perfectly normal voice asked, "Well now that the business has been taken care of, could I interest you in a game of Shah-tezh?"

"I am afraid you will have to teach me the rules, Senator. From my limited knowledge of the game, I think I would enjoy it since it seems similar to a strategy game from my home world." Annabeth knew that there were several chess-like games in this galaxy, even chess itself, and that Shah-tezh was the oldest. She had played Dejarik once, and although she had won easily, she was not a fan. That game felt too much like a ring match compared to the more elegant strategy required for chess.

"Of course, my dear." Palpatine pressed a button on his chair, and a portion in the middle of the desk slid apart as a square board rose to fill the empty space. It looked like a beautifully crafted chess board with its checkered black and white squares made of polished stone, but this board had nine squares per a side instead of eight. Once the board had stopped moving, nine pieces rose from the board on both sides, white figures in front of her and black in front of Palpatine.

Palpatine patiently explained the rules of the game and the uses of the nine unique pieces as well as some rather interesting history. There were definitely a few similarities with chess: the Imperator was like the king, the Vizer moved exactly like a bishop and even resembled the shape because of the hat, and the Knight, like its chess counterpart, could jump over pieces but only moved two spaces in a direction instead of the characteristic L-shape. However, the other pieces particularly the Craft, the Beast, and the Outcast were completely foreign to her. The lack of pawns would make defense tricky, and the larger board would also affect the game.

"Do you understand?" Palpatine asked once he had explained everything.

"Yes," Annabeth replied. "Who starts?"

Palpatine smiled, "White always moves first."

Silence filled the room during their first few turns. Since this was her first time playing, Annabeth opted for a more defensive strategy to get a feel for the game and probe Palpatine's responses. Despite her cautious tactics, she was still the first to capture a piece. "Good," Palpatine said. "I believe you will become quiet the Shah-tezh prodigy." After that the conversation flowed once again though she had a feeling Palpatine was trying to use it to distract her.

"I am rather surprised that a visit to the Jedi Temple was not on your itinerary," Palpatine stated after he had pinned her Counselor in a particularly clever trap. "Frankly, as Force-users from another galaxy, I'm surprised you are not more involved with the Jedi."

Annabeth frowned in concentration trying to find a way to either save her piece or at least make Palpatine pay for taking it. "I think Qui-Gon was hoping that we could work together and sort of compare notes to gain a better understanding of the nature of the Force, but the Council disagreed. Not to mention, we aren't exactly on the best terms with the Jedi Council at the moment, so we decided that it would be best to avoid the Jedi Temple unless there was some emergency."

"I know dealing with the Council can be frustrating at times," Palpatine admitted, "but surely, you would at least want to visit with Knight Kenobi and Padawan Skywalker while you are on Coruscant. I know the boy would be disappointed that he missed you. He seems quite fond of you both."

Annabeth glanced up from the board. "That's the problem, Senator, we are not allowed to visit Anakin. In our last meeting with the Council, we might have . . . pressured them to take Anakin back as a Jedi-in-training. In return, both Percy and I swore a binding oath in the Force that we would never try to contact him again."

Palpatine blinked in surprise, "That seems like a rather unfair and demanding oath."

"They were afraid that we were a bad influence on him. Plus, the whole no attachment rule as you very well know." She returned her focus to the board and smiled as she found a solution to her problem by setting up her Knight to capture his Vizier. "It was a hard decision. I think both Percy and I saw a little of ourselves in Ani, but we knew he wanted to be a Jedi. So, we did what we could to help his dream become a reality, even if it means we won't see him again."

"That is a pity," Palpatine said as he studied the board.

Annabeth decided now was as good of a time as any to tell Palpatine her plan. If he was trying to distract her with conversation, it was only fair to do the same. "Senator Palpatine, I need you to drop out of the election." Her statement generated the shock she had expected. The senator looked up from the board in confusion.

"Why?"

"I need you to at least act like you will. Make arrangements for a well-publicized speech for the day after tomorrow. Drop hints to your staff, particularly around the sitting area. In order to locate the blackmail, we need the Sith to contact you as soon as possible. He hasn't done that since the original blackmail threat, and we are running out of time. We have to manufacture a situation that would force him to do so. I believe the chance of his puppet chancellor dropping out of the election will succeed in doing that. Afterwards, you can say whatever you want in the speech, pretend that the Sith convinced you to continue with the election."

"I see," Palpatine said, and he moved the one piece she had hoped that he wouldn't. He studied her, "It does seem like a good strategy, and even if it does not work, it will not hurt my campaign." He smiled, "And it does explain why you destroyed my statue."

"So, you will do it?"

Palpatine nodded, "Yes."

Annabeth let out a breath that she hadn't realized she had been holding. At least she could consider this part a victory, even if she knew she had lost the Shah-tzeh game. She swallowed her pride and casually flicked her Imperator over. "You've already won, in five more moves, nine if I decided to be annoying."

"A lot can happen in nine moves. I may make a mistake," Palpatine suggested.

"You wouldn't make a mistake," Annabeth said with certainty, "not for the duration of the rest of the game since you barely even blinked when I used my best tactic to distract you. I also see a backup plan that you set up during your third move. Even if I did stop your first endgame, I would leave myself wide open for the second one."

"If you saw these formations why did you not disrupt them sooner?" Palpatine asked. "You played a rather defensive game."

"I was curious how some of your moves, those I couldn't quite determine the motivation for, would play out in your strategy. The patterns in this game are different than the one I'm used to. Although I could recognize a few of the long-term sequences, by the time I realized the whole picture, it was too late to do anything," she admitted. "Plus this time, I needed to get a feel for the game, see how things reacted if I prodded. Sometimes when you are on an unknown playing field or know you have a disadvantage, it is wisest not to play to win, but rather to play to learn."

"I am impressed, Annabeth," Palpatine said with a smile that seemed almost fatherly. "That is a very wise and mature perspective." He sighed then and looked out at the city. "Unfortunately, you do not always have the opportunity to play to learn."

Gods, did she know that to be true. "In those situations, you are no longer playing, Senator. You are surviving." She could still taste the hot, sulfurous air of Tartarus. That hadn't been a game, at least not for her and Percy. There, she had done whatever she could just so she and Percy would survive, even manipulating Bob and Damasen. She tried to tell herself that she hadn't known then, when she had used every persuasive tactic she could think of to convince the Titan and Giant to help them, that it would cost the two their lives. She wanted to believe that it had been their choice to sacrifice themselves and stand-up to Tartarus, to choose another destiny. But, she also knew they would still be alive if it wasn't for her.

She sensed Palpatine's piercing gaze and hated that she had somehow admitted her vulnerability to this sharp-eyed politician just with her words, expression, and silence. "I am sorry," the senator said in a soft, sincere tone, "that you know the burden of survival at such a young age."

She met his eyes and managed a weak smile, "You don't get as good as Percy and me if you had an easy life."

"I suppose not." A silence hung between them as Annabeth forced her focus away from those painful memories. "Could I interest you in another game?" Palpatine asked, kindly. "Even if you were playing to learn, I must admit you were the best opponent I have had in a long while."

"It does sound tempting, Senator." Annabeth had enjoyed herself immensely even if she had lost and couldn't wait for another round. Palpatine was certainly a master of the game. "However, I am afraid I shouldn't leave Percy and Jar Jar to their own devices for much longer. Those two are probably the biggest trouble magnets in the galaxy."

Palpatine winced, "I suppose you are right. I would hate to see what damage those two could cause if left alone for too long."

As she passed the sitting area on the way out, inspiration struck. She turned back to Palpatine and said, "I am sorry that Percy and I couldn't do more to help, and I hope you consider my suggestion to withdraw. It is the safest way to call his bluff." After playing a game of Shah-tezh with him, she was confident that Palpatine would recognize this move for what it was and play along.

"I will consider it," Palpatine said solemnly. "As much as I will regret losing the opportunity to serve as chancellor, it is a better alternative than risking the Republic falling into the hands of this Sith."

She suppressed a smile as she left the office. Palpatine was good at this.

* * *

After checking to make sure that both Percy and Jar Jar could successfully deliver their speeches, she and Percy returned to their room. Annabeth immediately noticed the changes to their accommodations. The statue that Percy had criticized was gone, and the red comforter had been replaced with a blue one. Percy frowned, "I know I should be glad, but I still don't like it. It's just creepy now, like too personal and invasive."

Percy might not have been considered book-smart, but he was rather attuned to power-plays which was exactly what Palpatine had done. It sent two messages. One, the benefit of the spying devices for determining guests' preferences, and two, a subtle reminder that this was Palpatine's domain. In these rooms, he had complete control and could even make a large statue disappear on a whim. "Are those spying devices actually off now?" he asked.

Annabeth did a quick check with Daedalus, but she had known the answer even before she pulled out the tablet. "Yes, they are all gone." Not off, he had them removed.

"Good," Percy said and gave her a passionate kiss that took her breath away.

 **It will be Annabeth's point of view for the remainder of the blackmail arc, so probably the next chapter or two at the most. I'm having more trouble then I thought I would with this part. I might literally write two different versions because I can't make up my mind about something, so thanks for your patience.**


	30. Interlude V

**So sorry for the very long wait, I've been trying to balance a lot lately. Thanks for your patience and understanding, and as always thanks for the reviews (your feedback was very helpful for writing this chapter), favorites, and follows. Extra long chapter for the extra long wait.**

Interlude V – Annabeth

Annabeth didn't know what woke her. Everything was quite in their guest bedroom, but she had the feeling that she was in danger. It was the same feeling she got before a monster attacked. Percy's hand suddenly gripped hers, and she knew he felt it too. She scanned the room. The most likely place for an attack would be from the windows. She tugged on Percy's arm as she reached for her blaster on the bedside table. After so many years of fighting together, he knew what she wanted. She dove off the bed, and he followed. Of course, he tried to be chivalrous and used his body to shield her as something crashed through a window on the other side of the room.

A blaster went off as a figure swooped in. She saw the blue bolt arc across the room in the direction of the door, probably blasting the controls. The intruder chuckled, "No one's leaving this party early." He had a gravelly voice with a strange accent and was humanoid with a bald head from what Annabeth could see in the dim light from Coruscant's skyscrapers shining through the broken window. She felt Percy silently shift into a crouch ready to spring, but R2-D2 beat him to it and charged the intruder with his shock prod after several angry beeps.

"Attack plan beta," she whispered to Percy.

Percy didn't reply, but he rushed forward while the intruder was distracted by R2. The attacker must have had an ion blaster because he fired at the brave little droid, and a blue charge raced over R2's circuits causing the droid to shutdown. Percy ignited his green lightsaber, "That wasn't very nice." Of course, he just had to add a taunt. The intruder whirled around, but before he could fire an ion bolt which would still stun Percy, her boyfriend sliced through the blaster, only missing the hand by a few inches as the bald alien jumped back in shock. Fast refluxes, Annabeth added to her mental list of strengths and weaknesses of their mystery opponent, also night vision since the intruder was blinking rapidly as if the glow of the lightsaber hurt his eyes. "You're a Jedi?" he asked completely surprised.

"Not exactly, it's a friend's," Percy retorted as he advanced on their attacker.

The intruder grinned in a creepy way that made Annabeth think he might actually be a serial killer level psychopath, "Good, it's always more fun when the prey come out to play!" In one motion, the alien drew a large vibrosword that was strapped to his back and swung it down at Percy.

However, Percy wasn't the best swordsman at Camp-Halfblood for no reason. He deflected the vibrosword and followed with an attack forcing his opponent to step to the side. _Come on Percy, a little more,_ Annabeth thought. She carefully aimed her blaster while staying out of sight, waiting for a clear shot.

She had to admit that the assassin (it had to be an assassin since the attacker was definitely going for the kill), was pretty good. Percy pressed him hard, not giving him a moment to realize that she was hiding in the corner, but the assassin surprisingly kept up and prevented Percy from ending the bout quickly. Either he was a Force sensitive or was stronger and faster than the majority of humans. She also could tell the moment the assassin realized that he was outmatched. His swings became harder and wilder, like a cornered animal. Finally, though it probably had been only a few seconds, Percy maneuvered the intruder so that his back was directly in her line of fire. She pulled the trigger, and the intruder collapsed.

Percy prodded the fallen attacker with his foot. "Is he dead?"

"No, just stunned," Annabeth replied as she stood from her hiding spot and grabbed Daedalus 2.0. "It's much harder to get answers from the dead."

Percy turned on the lights, and she had her first good look at their attacker. He had pale skin with a dark tattoo on the lower half of his face and pointed ears. Definitely not completely human then. While Percy rummaged through his bag and pulled out his Naboo Security Force issued binders to restrain the assassin, she scanned the intruder with her laptop and after a few seconds had a positive match, Sixtat, the Outlands Butcher. He was wanted in nearly a hundred systems with several death sentences for vicious murders. The images of his brutally mutilated victims made her shudder. "I'm starting to wish I had killed him," Annabeth muttered. Percy glanced up in surprise from tying the assassin's legs together with torn strips from the red sheets. She wondered if he did that to purposely annoy their host. "He takes way too much pleasure in his killings," she explained. "He's also a Sakiyan. They're stronger and have better reflexes and senses than most humans."

"That's why his swings felt like they were from a cyclops. I thought I was just too tired. What now?" Percy asked with a yawn. "Can we just throw him outside the door and go back to sleep? I was actually having a good dream for a change."

"Someone just tried to kill us, Percy!" She couldn't believe her boyfriend could be thinking about sleep right now.

"So, someone's trying to kill us," he parroted back in that sarcastic tone of his. "What's new?"

She groaned, sometimes Percy could be so annoying, but she also had to resist laughing. He did have a point; someone was always trying to kill them. "But who?"

He shrugged, "I don't know who have we ticked off recently? A Sith Lord," he raised his index finger counting, "the Trade Federation, Hades maybe even Tapalo if he figured out he won't actually be getting any plasma from the Gungans. I'd say the Jedi Council, but I don't think assassinations are really their thing."

Those were the most likely suspects minus the last suggestion, but she knew he had meant it as a joke. The Jedi weren't a threat to them – yet, but the Sith. . . "I don't think it was Darth Sidious since he's trying to recruit you."

"Unless he's mad because he found out we're helping the senator, which he did because you purposely baited him."

That was true, but she still didn't think that was it. "Yes, but he would want it to happen quietly, an accident that wouldn't attract attention. That's not Sixtat's style. I don't think it was the Trade Federation either since they would probably go after Padmé. Why focus on us? Tapalo though does make sense. Our deaths would definitely hurt the unification process and representation for Gungans would be pushed back several years. No doubt the plan was for Sixtat to make a brutal example of us to scare everyone else. Plus, he probably assumed we are more vulnerable here without the protection of the queen and Panaka."

"That old sot really is getting annoying." Percy glanced at the door. "Where is the protection we do have anyways? Shouldn't the senator's guards be banging on the door by now. The whole crashing through a window wasn't exactly quiet."

Annabeth shook her head, "No, the soundproofing is too good in these rooms. I assume Sixtat must have disabled the external alarms before breaking the window. The only other way they would have known was with the secret cameras and mics that you told Palpatine to remove."

Percy rolled his eyes, "If Palpatine says, 'I told you so,' there's going to be some serious damage to his plumbing."

"At least it does give us time to do our own investigation and question the assassin ourselves," she stated. "I doubt the law enforcement would have let us." She rebooted R2 while Percy removed an extra blaster, several hidden vibroblades, and a utility belt from Sixtat. That was one thing they had both learned from Leo, never underestimate the utility belt. After several annoyed beeps, R2 plugged into the room's network and lowered the blast protection shutters to seal off the broken window. Annabeth glanced back down at the unconscious assassin, "And now we wait."

Waiting had never been one of Percy's strong suits, so after a few minutes he went to the refresher and returned with a large sphere of water which he dropped on the assassin. Sixtat jerked awake, head and shoulders completely soaked. He struggled to get free, but the restraints held, even the torn sheets. Annabeth didn't recognize any of the knots Percy had used to bind the assassin's legs. He probably had just made them up as he went since her boyfriend was rather talented at tangling things up. Once he realized he couldn't get free, Sixtat glared at both of them, "You're gonna be sorry you're ever born."

Percy snorted, "If I had a drachma every time someone said that."

Frustrated that he hadn't succeeded in intimidating Percy, Sixtat snarled, "You wouldn't be laughing, boy, if you knew who I was. But once I get free, you will. I'll make you watch while I cut your pretty friend here into little bits."

Percy's eyes darkened, and she felt the change in the Force (now that she knew how to recognize it) as he involuntarily gathered his power. Before he could lose control and destroy Palpatine's plumbing or do something even worse, she said "Percy," in a calm but slightly annoyed tone.

He glanced at her, and she stared into those sea-green eyes of his that seemed to pulse with the power of hurricanes at the moment. Then he looked down and sighed as he mentally released the build-up of his power. When he once again looked at her, there was an embarrassed smile playing on his lips, "Sorry Wise Girl, I know you're perfectly capable of kicking this psycho's butt yourself and don't need me to protect you."

"Good," she flashed him a relieved smile in return. "Now, that's settled. We can get to business." She glared at the assassin as she stated in her coldest most intimidating voice, "We have some questions for you that you are going to answer."

For a second, Sixtat flinched. He must have seen something in her eyes that made the hardened killer realize she wasn't some helpless prey but rather the most dangerous predator he had ever met. As if trying to make up for his moment of weakness, Sixtat growled, "What makes you think I'm gonna do anything little girl?"

"It's simple," she made a big show of turning up the intensity of her blaster. "If you don't tell me who hired you to assassinate us, I will kill you." She leveled the blaster at his head with a steady arm and an unflinching gaze. "And I'll sleep wonderfully knowing there is one less monster in the galaxy."

"Don't know," Sixtat spat out.

Annabeth smirked, "That's too bad for you that I know you're lying. Someone like you would make sure to know the identity of his clients, so you know who to go after if they reneged on their payment. I'm sure I'll figure it out anyways since there always is a trail for things like this. Your cooperation would only have saved a little time and your life. That's really not too much." She started to slowly squeeze the trigger.

"Wait!" Sixtat shouted. Annabeth cocked an eyebrow in challenge. "I'll tell you what I know if you won't kill me."

Annabeth nodded, and lowered the gun. Sixtat relaxed and took a deep breath. "Snitching is bad for business, but suppose I don't owe the bastard a thing, since he lied about the hit," he reasoned. He squinted at her as if trying to see beyond her appearance. "Can't tell if it was a set-up or if he just didn't know. Said it'd be easy, two humans barely more than kids. You two might look human, but you don't smell human at least not completely. And y'all aren't easy. I'd wager by the way you fought, boy, you've got more experience than most bounty hunters."

Percy gave her a worried look from his spot just behind Sixtat, but Annabeth didn't allow her concern to show on her face. They couldn't let Sixtat know how important that information could be. Instead, she acted annoyed with a hint of disbelief, "You're just stalling. Of course, we're human. What else would we be?" While there were other kinds of half-humans in the galaxy, they usually had much more visible characteristics of their non-human parent. "If you're just going to make stuff up, then. . ." She raised the gun again.

"He's on Naboo," he said desperately. "Ras Tapalo. Some rich, big-wig lord or something."

Well, he was the most logical suspect, but she hadn't anticipated Tapalo doing something quite this desperate. She supposed it was possible that the Sith could have manipulated Tapalo to do it. Just to be sure though, she asked, "What does Tapalo look like?"

Sixtat shrugged the best he could with his arms cuffed behind his back. "Didn't meet with him in person since I'm a wanted man and all, but he had fancy robes, dark hair and beard, and a big nose."

"That sounds like him," Percy muttered. By the look in his eye, Annabeth bet he was imagining punching said nose, but then he smiled. "Wonder what we're going for these days? How much was he going to pay you?"

The assassin frowned clearly not expecting to discuss his price with his intended victims, but it was a good question. It would let them know how much Tapalo wanted them dead and if he had additional financial support for the deed. "Thirty-thousand credits."

"What only 30,000 measly credits!" Percy exclaimed pretending to be offended. "I feel like Gaea was offering way more than that on her wanted posters." It was on the lower end, so it probably was just his money. If they didn't do something about Tapalo though, he would get worse.

Annabeth rolled her eyes, "Well clearly you haven't annoyed Tapalo as much as you annoyed Gaea."

"Huh, maybe I'm losing my touch," Percy replied with a smirk.

Sixtat looked from Percy then back to her clearly confused. She figured this wasn't the typical response from people who were almost assassinated. "Let's just say this isn't the first time someone's placed a bounty on us," she explained.

She saw a flash of respect in the assassin's eyes before he said, "You got what you want. Suppose you gonna hand me over to the police now?"

Annabeth glanced at the blaster in her hand. It would be so easy. She'd killed before and not just monsters, (they were archetypes and therefore didn't really count) but friends whose only crimes were that they wanted a better life and believed Kronos' lies. Those deaths did haunt her. Not even Percy truly understood since he hadn't really known the demigods Luke had recruited, not like she had. But unlike her friends, Sixtat was a killer, a murderer who enjoyed making others suffer. It would be easy.

" _Do it_ , _kill him,"_ a voice said in the back of her head. It sounded familiar like a half-forgotten voice from her dreams.

Sixtat must have deduced what she was considering. "You promised, girl," he spat out. "We had a deal."

It was true. They did have an agreement, but it wasn't like she swore on the River Styx. She stared at the assassin as he desperately struggled against his restraints trying to break free, but he was helpless just like so many of his victims must have been as he cut them apart. She glanced at Percy, but all she saw was understanding in his sea-green eyes, no judgement. " _Do it,"_ the voice hissed.

Suddenly as she gazed at Percy, it felt like he had dumped cold water on her, and she could think clearly again. Yes, she could kill Sixtat. He probably deserved it, but in this case, she didn't have to. Despite all the lives she had taken, she had never been an executioner, and she didn't think she wanted to start now. They could turn him in, and he would pay for his crimes the legal way.

Immediately, a plan started to form in her mind. Maybe, she could use this to get rid of another problem as well. "Very well, we will turn you into the authorities," she casually tossed the blaster on the bed. Sixtat froze in shock. "But if you don't want to get extradited to a system where you will face the death penalty, I suggest we make another deal."

"What sort of deal?" Sixtat asked licking his lips in anticipation.

"Provide sufficient evidence and testify against Ras Tapalo, and I'll make sure you don't get extradited. You do have proof that Tapalo hired you?"

Sixtat nodded, "Just in case something like this happened, and I get double crossed. Can't make no promises though. Rich lords don't usually end up in cells."

Annabeth was impressed. Sixtat was more intelligent than he appeared which also made him more dangerous. "I just need enough evidence for him to go to trial. If you cooperate, you'll stay in the Coruscant or Naboo sector and off death row."

"Sounds like agreeable terms, Mam. I'll do my part if you do yours."

Annabeth allowed herself a small smile, she was Mam now, not little girl. "Good, we're in agreement then. I will warn you though if you escape or are anything other than a model prisoner, Percy and I will hunt you down and kill you. I promise you haven't seen even half of what we're capable of." She let the calculating coldness return to her glare as a reminder and a promise. Sixtat nodded his head in understanding.

She gave Percy the look, and he knocked out the assassin with one well-placed blow to the head. "Thanks," Percy said with a grin, "I've been wanting to do that for a while now."

Annabeth knew the responsible course of action was to call for the guards and law enforcement, but it was a rather ungodly hour, and Percy used his baby seal eyes to beg for sleep. Something that would not happen for several hours if they did the responsible thing, so instead Percy tossed Sixtat into the antechamber and told R2 to shock him back to unconsciousness if the assassin woke up.

It did allow Annabeth to enjoy four glorious hours of sleep. In fact, it was the best sleep she had in a while. Maybe, it was the extra soft mattress or all the Jedi nearby sending positive vibes in the Force, but there were no dreams or voices or suggestions, just quiet, peaceful sleep.

* * *

That was until the protocol droid woke her and Percy up once the sun had risen. The droid politely declared that Senator Palpatine wished to see them immediately regarding the wanted murderer in the antechamber. Great, Annabeth thought this will be a fun conversation.

Palpatine's office was swarming with his personal guards and several law-enforcement officers with Sixtat in the middle. As soon as the senator spotted her and Percy, he said, "I assume there is an explanation on why a wanted murderer was found restrained in your chambers this morning?"

Before she could answer Palpatine with a more diplomatic answer, Percy replied, "Well, he broke through our window last night and tried to kill us, but since we can take care of ourselves without your secret spy gear, we tied him up, so you guys could arrest him."

"I see," Palpatine stated though he couldn't completely repress the surprise that flashed across his face. "And why did you not notify my staff or law enforcement immediately?"

Again, Annabeth opened her mouth to speak, but Percy beat her to it, "Because it was super late, and I needed my beauty sleep."

Annabeth groaned. Sometimes she really wished her boyfriend had a mute button though she knew there was a reason Percy was being so disrespectful. No doubt, he was hoping his cavalier treatment of the assassination attempt would get a reaction from Palpatine if the senator had known or been involved in it. She studied Palpatine's response closely, but if the senator was indeed wearing a figurative mask as her boyfriend suspected than it was a very good one since instead of any anger or annoyance Palpatine seemed genuinely amused and even chuckled. "Your frankness is refreshing as always, young man, and I am relieved you are both safe."

It did take a while for the police to collect their statements. Percy's face was priceless though when one officer mentioned that he and Annabeth would be receiving 100,000 credits for Sixtat's capture. "What?" he asked completely shocked. "You actually get paid for stopping someone who tries to kill you! I love this place!" In all the excitement last night, Annabeth had forgotten to tell him about the reward for Sixtat's capture or death.

When Annabeth finally managed to escape from the police's questions, she pulled Palpatine to the side, "I have two favors to ask."

"If it is within my power, I will do what I can, my dear," Palpatine responded with an appreciative smile. "Besides the fact that I would like to help you, it seems as if you and young Percy are once again heroes. You have done this Republic a great service by apprehending the Outlands Butcher."

"About that," Annabeth bit her lip. "Do you think you could keep this all quiet? Surely, someone as influential as you could withhold the public release of the details surrounding the why and how Sixtat was caught just until after the Gungans formerly have their representation?"

Palpatine looked at her carefully like he was trying to answer a question that he hadn't asked yet, "I believe I can manage that, but I assume this is not just for the sake of your modesty?"

"No, not completely. I believe this attack was to prevent Gungans from gaining representation in the Senate." Annabeth explained. "The motion cannot afford for anyone on the Commission to be intimidated by such violent actions and withdraw their support."

"That is a very strategic move," Palpatine praised. "I see why Queen Amidala values your advice so highly. Does this mean you know who sent the assassin? He has remained silent on that front until a lawyer comes."

Annabeth nodded, "Yes, Sixtat confessed that is was Ras Tapalo and claims to have sufficient evidence to accuse him which leads me to my second favor. In return for his cooperation, I would like Sixtat to carry out his sentence in either the Naboo or Coruscant system whichever will be easier for the trial. Sixtat was only the arrow. I want the person who fired the bow."

"That is most troubling indeed that Ras would resort to assassination," Palpatine frowned in concern. "I have friends in the Justice Department that should be able to help with your request though I doubt Tapalo will be convicted."

"I know," Annabeth admitted. "But a long, unpopular trial will damage his reputation and political career. He will be out of our way politically and will have less resources to pay for future assassins, especially once word gets around that Percy and I bested the Outlands Butcher. I don't think many assassins will be too eager to take us on without an extremely large monetary award."

Like most politicians, Palpatine was usually a hard person to read, but right now she could tell he was impressed. "My dear, when you undoubtedly become bored with Naboo politics, I hope you will consider bringing your talents to the galactic scale. I could use someone like you on my staff."

She could definitely see the appeal of galactic politics and was flattered by the offer. However, Palpatine was a career politician who reveled in the game of it. She could see that this man wasn't solely motivated by the welfare of his constituents. Not that he didn't care about them, but he wore his power too well to not enjoy it. Unlike Percy, she didn't necessarily think this was a reason to dislike Palpatine since it wasn't too different from the career politicians back home, but it was a reason to distrust some of his motives. And given the choice she would prefer to work with Padmé, someone passionate, whose sole goal was to better the lives of the people she served. "Thanks for the offer, Senator, but right now I'm very happy working with Padmé."

"I understand," Palpatine told her. "Her passion and enthusiasm can be rather appealing. Though I hope we can still discuss any particularly interesting or difficult issues that come up in the future? I believe we could both learn much from each other."

"Of course, I always love challenging problems," Annabeth replied with a smile. She did believe she could learn a good deal from Palpatine, and it couldn't hurt having a powerful friend with the amount of legal trouble Percy tended to get into.

* * *

Despite being delayed due to the assassination investigation, the rest of the day ran smoothly. Since they were only requesting the addition of a junior representative to a system already in the Republic, they only needed the agreement of the Galactic Representative Commission and the Supreme Chancellor not the entire Senate, and because of Naboo's current popularity in galactic politics, it should be an easy pass. Both Percy and Jar Jar did a surprisingly excellent job with their speeches and interactions with the politicians. Chancellor Valorum, himself, assured them that everyone had already agreed to the Gungan addition although the official announcement would be in a Senate session tomorrow. Luckily, it seemed like Palpatine was able to keep the assassination attempt quiet.

Because of her holo-tracking device, she received alerts every time Palpatine received a hologram reminding her of the real reason they were here, but none of the calls had been the Sith. She knew that the senator had scheduled a speech for the next day. The rumors surrounding that speech had the media in an uproar speculating why the favorite candidate might possibly withdraw from the election.

After a day of endless meetings, handshaking, and a fancy dinner, Annabeth feared that the Sith wouldn't contact Palpatine, but she finally got the alert she had been waiting for two hours after dinner while she and Percy were in their room. She thought the Sith might be waiting for Palpatine to be alone, so they had left him in his office. Immediately, she used Daedalus 2.0 to project the hologram, activated the programs in the holo-tracker, and got to work.

"I am most disappointed, Senator," the hooded figure said in that deep, gravelly voice. "Not only did you seek help from those children, but you foolishly think you can thwart my plan simply by withdrawing from the chancellor election."

Although they couldn't see him, Annabeth's holo-tracker still picked up Palpatine's voice. "I will not be intimidated into handing you the Republic."

The Sith chuckled. At the sound, Annabeth noticed Percy's hands tightened into fists. "Such bravery, Senator. Perhaps you think I am bluffing as the girl said. I assure you I am not."

The hologram changed. Instead of the Sith, there was a woman resting her head against a much younger Palpatine's chest, "I wish it could always be like this, Sheev."

The young Palpatine slowly stroked her long hair, "As do I, Jocasta."

The two figures faded away, replaced by Darth Sidious once more. "I have the rest of the conversation recorded, as well as the events before and after, Senator. However, if that is not sufficient motivation, I have a surprise for you tomorrow, as a reminder of what happens if you do not do as I ask. A partnership with you is the swifter, more elegant method to achieve my goal, but it is not the only way. If you insist on resisting, then I will be forced to tear the galaxy apart, and that insignificant planet you call home will be the first to be destroyed. I am not unreasonable. Work with me as chancellor, and you will be rewarded. Your planet will prosper, and those you care for will not be harmed. The decision is yours, Senator." The glowing blue projection vanished as the hologram ended.

"Man, that guy's really starting to get on my nerves," Percy said in the sudden quiet of the room. "So, how's the hacking going?"

Because that was the real plan all along. Sure, knowing the Sith's location was the back-up plan, but erasing the blackmail material from afar was better. While the Sith had been busy making threats, she had hacked into his system with her own special version of a Trojan horse inspired by some of Daedalus' projects. "Actually, we got pretty lucky. This holoprojector is on the same network as a computer that has tons of recordings," she answered as she continued typing furiously initiating a safe and stealthy download of all the files. Daedalus did a basic scan, but she kept the files in a specialized quarantined program just in case the Sith had a nasty surprise even though her cyber invasion should go by unnoticed. The Sith's defenses were designed to stop slicing attacks using known techniques from this galaxy not the hacking from home which accomplished the same thing just in a different way. It was sort of like if the Sith's defenses blocked all emails, but texts could still get through. "Looks, like I got them all!"

"Great going Wise Girl!" Percy cheered. "So where is this secret Sith base? Might be good to send the Jedi that way."

Annabeth checked the readings on the tracker. "Based on the signal, it looks like it's on Mustafar, a volcanic planet on the Outer Rim."

Percy shuddered, "I hate volcanos. They're even worse than deserts. Good thing we won't have to go there. You should pull out of there or whatever it's called for hacking. You got what we need."

"One second," Annabeth replied. "Since we're in the Sith's system, why not do a little spying ourselves." At the moment she had complete control over the Sith's holoprojector, so she turned on its camera. Immediately, an alarm blared, and she knew she pushed her luck too far. Somehow, she must have triggered an alert by activating the holoprojector. "Styx!" Annabeth quickly made sure Daedalus would be protected if the Sith tried an immediate cyber counterattack. She glanced at the holo-image displayed from the projector, but all she could make out was a torso with some kind of cloak, cape, robe flapping around. Then a glowing lightsaber blade descended, then nothing.

"That was over dramatic," Percy stated.

Annabeth sighed, relieved something worse hadn't happened. At least Daedalus was safe, and they had the files. "It was crude, but effective." They wouldn't be spying from that system again, and they still hadn't seen the Sith's face which was probably why he took that particular action. "Let's double check that we actually got the right video."

"Eww," Percy face scrunched up in disgust like he just smelled a stable full of flesh-eating horse poop. "Do we really have to watch a video of old people getting all mushy and . . . you know?"

"No, thank the gods Daedalus 2.0 has a very good image recognition scan for files," since she really didn't want to see any of that either. The laptop would just show her a short clip and the percentage of the total file that included those individuals. "According to the scan, we've got two hours' worth of potential blackmail along with old communications with the Trade Federation, and what looks like videos of Darth Maul's training."

"Great just what I wanted to see, evil tattoo face learning how to kill people," Percy grumbled. "But glad we got that blackmail video."

Unfortunately, that was the easy part. The trickiest thing with blackmail in a digital age was that the blackmailer could have unlimited copies of the blackmail hidden anywhere, and all it would take was one copy making it to the right people to ruin the senator and Jedi's career. Instead of trying to track down all the copies or find and kill Darth Sidious, who at the moment was more allusive than smoke, she focused on making sure the right people couldn't get it or at least share it.

"Now for Part Two. Are you ready R2?"

The droid beeped an affirmative.

"Well let's head down to the communication room then," she glanced at Percy. "Are you coming?"

"Of course," he replied with a smirk. "I'll be there for moral support and to watch your back in case another assassin comes while you're too busy doing your genius computer work."

She laughed, "Really Seaweed Brain, two assassination attempts in one day?"

He shrugged, "Well, it is us!"

It felt weird being back in the same room where she had foiled the Trade Federation's communication block five months ago. The last time Annabeth was here, she had no idea what she was doing with the strange technology, and it had felt like she was groping for straws in the dark. Now, she had a much greater understanding of the HoloNet and knew exactly what she had to do as she hooked up Daedalus and R2 to the right computers. She was going to do something that had never been done before. She was going to corrupt the HoloNet.

If someone had told her a year ago, that she would become a master hacker, she would have thought Dionysus had cursed them. Then again, she never thought she would be sent to another universe either. Luckily, Daedalus had set up his laptop with very sophisticated hacking tools. The inventor had even developed a way to intercept and influence Iris messages, probably to keep an eye on Minos or anyone else who might be hunting for him. Targeting the allusive S-threads that ran the HoloNet wasn't too different from pinpointing the specific dimension the goddess used for her communications. After that, all Annabeth had to do was input a virus that specifically targeted any images from the blackmail. Hopefully, it wouldn't break the HoloNet because that would be bad.

Annabeth wasn't sure how long it took, but by the time she was finished her eyes were so tired that she could barely read the Greek and Aurebesh text scrolling on her screens. R2 beeped a cheery congratulations, but the room was eerily quiet for one with a bored Percy in it. She turned around and saw her boyfriend sitting cross legged on the floor meditating of all things. He really had come a long way. She took a minute to center herself and reached out to him in the Force. It was something they had been practicing, but it only worked if both of them were outside their natural mental shields and in contact with what she considered the Outside or Surrounding Force something Annabeth was proud to say she could do much quicker than Percy. She loved sensing Percy in the Force. It was like seeing a different, purer part of her boyfriend that was still so him, a bright, beautiful light as mesmerizing as the shifting light in water and was as vast as the sea.

Percy felt her presence as well and immediately smiled and opened his eyes. "Did it work?"

"I'm about to test it." She pulled out two spare holoprojectors and inserted a holodisk with a clip of the blackmail video into one of them. Then she tried to transmit it to the other one over the HoloNet. The holoprojector with the disk sparked and shutdown. The disk and the holoprojector were literally fried. She knew if it had been a computer, it would have been completely destroyed. It wasn't a hundred percent full proof, but it did prevent the Sith from simply sending it to the media. Even if he sent a holodisk, as soon as anyone tried to display it on anything accessing the HoloNet, the blackmail and device would be destroyed.

Percy whooped and lifted her up in his arms swinging her around the room before kissing her in that way that made her breath hitch, and her heart beat faster. Finally, he pulled away, "You're amazing, Wise Girl! And since there's no chance that a queen will walk in on us this time, I think I should kiss you some more." That was something Annabeth wouldn't complain about.

* * *

Annabeth didn't have an opportunity to discuss the blackmail with Palpatine until they were in the Senate Building the next day. The crowded hallways made it difficult for a surveillance device to overhear their conversation, and any spies or eavesdroppers trying to follow them would be noticeable as the group took the long, scenic route to the Naboo repulsorpod. She also charged Percy with making sure other senators wouldn't try to interrupt them. Her boyfriend could look quite intimidating when he wanted to. Jar Jar should already be at the repulsorpod with Palpatine's assistant. She had sent him ahead, so hopefully, the usual Jar Jar lateness wouldn't be a problem.

"I assume you heard the message last night?" Palpatine asked quietly.

Annabeth nodded, "Yes."

"And the surprise he mentioned for today?" Annabeth bit her lip at the senator's concerned question. That was something she and Percy had talked about late into the night. "Do you think he has the ability to block the Gungan representation?"

"That was my first thought," Annabeth admitted. "But he still wants you elected. Stopping the Gungan representation would only hurt your campaign because it would make you appear incompetent. Instead, I think he will try to do something that will drive support to you but still hurt. I warned Panaka late last night that he could try another assassination attempt on the queen since that would definitely do the trick."

Palpatine frowned in concern, "In this case then, I hope you are wrong my dear." For once, Annabeth hoped she was wrong too. "Did you get what you needed at least?"

"I think so," Annabeth replied. "The message came from Mustafar."

Palpatine frowned, "That is a rather dangerous and unpleasant place."

"Luckily, we won't need to go there." Annabeth repressed a smile as an expression of surprise flashed across Palpatine's face.

"You won't? How else will you stop the blackmail?"

"It's already taken care of," she explained. "I was able to slice my way into the Sith's system last night and stole the blackmail. Then I made it, so no one can use the HoloNet to spread or share it. Without an actual video to show, it will be difficult to blackmail you even if there are more copies lying around. It's not perfect, but it will make it much harder for this Sidious to use his leverage against you."

Palpatine froze for a few seconds, completely stunned but started walking again before he could cause a hold up in the hallway. "How is that even possible? No one has been able to infiltrate or corrupt the HoloNet."

"Let's just say Percy and I have a gift of making one question exactly what is in the realm of possibility," she smiled sadly as she remembered Qui-Gon saying those words all those months ago. "But I did do it, so your problem should be solved for a while at least."

Palpatine shook his head in amazement, "Yes, I am starting to see that the impossible is a daily occurrence for you two."

"I wouldn't say daily," Percy interjected from his spot in front of them. "At least not usually, it's more of a monthly thing."

"Well, thank you. Even if the impossible is commonplace for you both, you have made this old man very grateful. If there is ever anything I can do for either of you, I hope you will not hesitate to ask."

That was what Annabeth had been hoping for. It was the main reasons why she had wanted to do Project Blackmail in the first place. "Actually, Senator, I was hoping we could discuss some anti-slavery measures you could implement after the election, like using the extra revenues from your proposed corporation tax to increase the bounty on known slavers and double the funding in three or so years for the refugee program that helps freed slaves rebuild their lives."

Palpatine chuckled, "You truly would make an excellent politician, my dear, though maybe next time try not to seem quite so eager. Of course, I can't make any promises at the moment, but if I am elected chancellor, then consider it done. Those seem like very reasonable request that I'm sure many senators would love to support."

* * *

Annabeth thought she knew what to expect inside the Grand Convocation Chamber, but she still gasped when Palpatine led them out onto the Naboo repulsorpod. The pattern of over a thousand repulsorpods in concentric circles was beautiful in its simplicity and awe-inspiring in its size. Knowing that the fate of nearly 25,000 solar systems depended on the decisions made in this arena caused her to feel far humbler and more insignificant than any temple she had ever been in. Chancellor Valorum started the session by officially welcoming the Gungans into the Galactic Senate with a junior representative position for the Naboo System.

"All right Jar Jar, you got this," Percy said encouragingly as their repulsorpod left the wall and moved toward the center of the chamber. This was the moment that Annabeth had worried the most about, Jar Jar doing something ridiculous on a galactic stage. However, it turned out that the clumsy Gungan was a natural public speaker. He delivered his short speech perfectly thanking the Senate and chancellor. Then Palpatine gave an excellent speech about coming together during adversity.

As their repulsorpod returned to their designated spot, Annabeth relaxed. They had officially accomplished everything they needed to on Coruscant, and for once everything had gone surprisingly as planned, minus the assassination attempt, but even that would help get Tapalo off their backs. So, of course, something had to go wrong. Chancellor Valorum took the floor once more and gravely announced, "Justice Pavond has overturned the ruling of the Royal House of Naboo vs the Trade Federation." All Hades broke out in the Senate Chamber.

"That's a big pile of Bantha poodoo," Percy shouted. Luckily no one else could hear the Huttese insult because of the cacophony of all the other senators. Though, he was right. It was a big pile of foul-smelling substance. She caught Senator Palpatine's eye. This was the surprise Darth Sidious had promised.

* * *

The horde of reporters was waiting for them as soon as they excited the Senate Building.

"Senator Palpatine, will you make a motion for a new trial?" one reporter asked.

"Are the rumors about dropping out of the chancellor election true?"

Palpatine stopped at the top of the steps so that he had a stage. Between the reporters and holocams, whatever the senator said would be broadcasted all across the galaxy. "Citizens of the Republic, I assure you that the Trade Federation will be brought to justice for the crimes they have committed not only against my home world but the galaxy. It is true that I considered withdrawing from the chancellor election. Before this morning, I believed that it would be best for me to maintain my senatorial position to help my home adjust to the recent changes and guide the Gungan elected to the role of junior representative. However, I now see that the rampant corruption in our government is too great to ignore. This is clearly much larger than Naboo. I can no longer sit idle and watch our great Republic crumble due to the greed of corporations. If elected chancellor, I promise to return the Republic to the people once more."

Annabeth was impressed how Palpatine had used a rather compelling speech to perfectly twist the circumstances to strengthen the support for his cause. He was a genius, an artist, but instead of paint and canvas he used his words and people. Percy had certainly been right about one thing, Palpatine was an exceptional orator.

* * *

"How could this happen?" Annabeth asked rhetorically as she paced in Palpatine's office. The first thing she did as soon as she stepped foot in the room was smash the stupid surveillance gadget under the table. She'd played her hand well and no longer needed to worry about tipping Sidious off about her ability to detect them. Unfortunately, Sidious had also played his cards too. They should have been celebrating their victory after months of hard work, but instead the atmosphere was gloomier than the Underworld. "That trial was done by the book, and the evidence against Gunray and the Trade Federation was insurmountable. How could this judge possibly get away with a judgment notwithstanding the verdict."

Palpatine referenced a datapad, "I believe Pavond claimed that the verdict was decided by passion and prejudice of the jury and that the evidence may have been compromised since Jedi from the Order also claimed to be attacked by the Trade Federation."

"That's ridiculous," Percy exclaimed from his seat at the desk. Once again only two legs of the chair were on the ground though no one seemed to care enough to reprimand him at the moment. "Can't we just fire him? Anyone with half a brain knows that's not right."

Palpatine sighed. "I am afraid the only way a judge can be removed is by impeachment through the Senate. Something Chancellor Valorum will not encourage since he appointed Justice Pavond. It will have to wait until the new chancellor takes power." Percy groaned and muttered something about hating politics.

"Clearly, he must have been bought off by the Sith," Annabeth reasoned. "If he has that much influence over a Galactic Judge who else does he have?"

"It is worrisome," Palpatine admitted. "I fear by defying the Sith now, we might have made things worse. Any thoughts on his other threat to tear the galaxy apart if I would not be his pawn?"

Percy glanced at her. That had also been another sleep depriving topic from last night. "Well, he could mean it literally. With all your fancy tech, maybe he's making some kind of weapon that can literally tear the galaxy apart," Percy suggested.

"Or he could mean figuratively," Annabeth continued. "Which would probably be a Civil War."

Palpatine frowned, "Neither of those options are particularly good."

"Well, neither will happen overnight," Annabeth reasoned. "He did say this other way to reach his goal would take time, so hopefully between all of us and the Jedi we can stop this Sith for good before he can execute this other plan."

Suddenly, they were interrupted by Palpatine's assistant, "Your visitors are here, sir."

"Ah, yes please send them in." Annabeth was surprised to see an eager smile flash across Palpatine's face despite the troubling events surrounding them.

Before she could turn to see who these visitors were, a familiar voice exclaimed "Annabeth, Percy?" Anakin Skywalker slammed into her middle with a hug.

"Ani!" Somehow Percy had sprung off his chair and joined the hug too until an equally familiar cough made them all separate.

"Oops, sorry," Anakin muttered. "I don't think I'm supposed to do that anymore."

Obi-Wan starred down at them looking extremely irritated. Annabeth would almost say angry even, but she knew Obi-Wan didn't let himself get angry. "I cannot believe you would do something like this Percy. What about the cosmic consequences and fates worse than death?"

Percy laughed which only made Obi-Wan more annoyed. "Good to see you too Obi-Wan. And why would you think this is my fault?"

"I truly thought you would take sacred oaths more seriously," Obi-Wan retorted.

But before Percy could argue back, Palpatine stepped in, "Master Kenobi, Percy and Annabeth knew nothing about your visit. I am afraid I arranged it all on my own. I only thought to coordinate a nice surprise for my guests to meet their friends."

Obi-Wan still looked suspiciously at Percy, but her boyfriend just smiled, "See we didn't try to contact Anakin, so we didn't break the oath."

"A very convenient loophole you seem to be using a lot," Obi-Wan glanced Annabeth's way and narrowed his eyes in accusation. "Though perhaps I'm blaming the wrong friend."

Annabeth used her best dumb-blonde smile, but of course Obi-Wan knew her too well to believe it. So what if she casually told the senator about the oath they had made, and Palpatine had figured out the way around it. The look on Percy's face when he had hugged Anakin made it all worth it.

"In case you were unaware Senator," though the hint of sarcasm in Obi-Wan's tone made it clear that he thought it unlikely, "the Jedi Council wishes to limit contact between my Padawan and Percy and Annabeth. If you wish to continue helping Anakin with his education and furthering his understanding of the Republic and workings of the Senate, I would advise you to not coordinate anymore surprise visits among these friends."

"I am terribly sorry, Master Kenobi. I hope you can stay just this once, and I promise it will not happen again." The senator's smile looked slightly mischievous. "After all, I am sure none of us would wish for the Council to become cross with us."

Percy burst into laughter then, and Annabeth couldn't resist a smile, herself. Anakin pouted so adorably he could probably give Percy a run for his money, "Please, Master Obi-Wan," the boy begged. "Don't be a spoil-sport. It could be ages before I get to see them again."

Obi-Wan sighed, "Oh very well, but you will do an extra hour of meditation when we return to the Temple."

"Yipee!"

Percy and Annabeth told Anakin all about his mom's new life on Naboo, filling in the gaps that had been lost in their strange game of telephone with Obi-Wan. When Anakin finally got up the nerve to ask about Padmé, his cheeks turned bright red. Annabeth took pity on the poor boy and answered his questions before Percy could tease him about it. Afterwards, Anakin told them everything about his new life at the Temple.

"I made friends, Percy! Zandro's my age and he's in my mechanics class. I tried to help him build his energy cell when he was having trouble. At first, he wouldn't let me help which kind of made me upset, but afterwards he apologized and asked if I could help him after class since he's not very good at fixing things. I was going to tell him no, but then I thought he might have been embarrassed like when Clarisse didn't want Peter Johnson's help on her quest even though she needed it. So instead I helped him, and he's been helping me with High Galactic since he already knows it."

"That's great Anakin! I'm sure Peter Johnson would be very proud," Percy said with a wink.

"And then there's Kira. She's two years younger than me and had a . . ." he paused and glanced at Obi-Wan before continuing, "disagreement with some of the other kids, so I might have started a food fight to make her feel better. The Masters made me clean up the mess, but she stayed and helped."

Percy laughed, "Man, I wish I could've seen that!"

Obi-Wan glared at him, "That incident I do blame on your influence, Jackson."

"But it was a lot of fun Master! And no one got hurt. Plus, it was a good bonding experience."

"And this is coming from the same Padawan who argued with a Master over the food wasted by Kuat nobility," Obi-Wan added with an exasperated huff.

"I didn't know the Temple's extra food went to hungry people on Coruscant," Anakin defended himself though he looked slightly ashamed.

"I still cannot believe you thought we just threw it out, Padawan. That would be too wasteful."

Anakin flashed Obi-Wan a cheeky grin that definitely reminded Annabeth of Percy, "That's what the Kuat nobility do."

"Force save me from my impertinent Padawan," Obi-Wan muttered which of course made Percy laugh so hard he fell off the couch. Obi-Wan even chuckled which meant he must be really enjoying himself.

For the most part, Palpatine was content to be a silent observer only adding a comment here or there as the four them reconnected in the brief time they had. All too soon, it was time for the Jedi to return. Somehow this goodbye seemed less final than the one five months ago although Anakin still looked sad when he said his farewell and asked them to tell his mom hello for him. "I wish you guys were at the Temple too," he mumbled.

Percy laughed, "Yeah, I don't think that would be a good idea. I'd probably break so many rules and traditions and toilets that Master Yoda would chase me out with that stick of his while Master Window holds the door open." Picturing that image made them all laugh. "But, I'm sure we'll see you around Ani," Percy said with a wink. "Take care until next time."

Obi-Wan groaned, "Percy!"

"What? I'm sure the Will of the Force will bring us together again," her boyfriend flashed that troublemaker smirk of his. "After all the Force works in mysterious ways. Who are we to question it?"

"Well you certainly would," Obi-Wan sarcastically replied.

Annabeth stepped in before those two started a sarcastic statement sparring match. Percy seemed to like needling Obi-Wan's dry humor. "Goodbye Obi-Wan it was nice to see you again. I expect we will be in touch soon. There are some recent developments we need to discuss."

"Indeed," Obi-Wan said seriously. No doubt he had heard about the release of Gunray, but then his expression morphed into an amused smile, "I've heard the most interesting rumor that the Outlands Butcher was discovered tied-up in your room yesterday morning. I look forward to hearing the entertaining explanation for that one."

Anakin's eyes were as wide as saucers, "No way! You guys caught the Outlands Butcher! Wicked!"

Once Obi-Wan and Anakin were gone, Percy clenched his jaw which usually meant he was about to do something he didn't really want to. He turned to the senator and said in a serious and respectful tone, "Thank you Senator Palpatine for arranging that. I really appreciated it."

"You are very welcome my dear boy. I am just glad I was able to help you see your friends." The smile on Palpatine's face was one she imagined grandfathers saved for their favorite grandchild. "I know it helped young Anakin as well. Our queen asked me to keep an eye on the boy. I imagine adjusting to the Jedi lifestyle is difficult for him, so I do my best to help when I can. I am afraid next time it will be more challenging to make such a meeting possible, but I will try to come up with a solution if you visit again."

Annabeth wondered if Palpatine knew how much this meant to Percy. She figured for someone as perceptive as Palpatine it would be hard to miss. So, was he just trying to be a kind grandfather, or was there an alternative reason to reuniting Anakin and Percy? If the senator was trying to win her boyfriend over, it would take more than just a few surprise meetings to make Percy like him, although Percy would probably try to be less disagreeable around the senator. But why bother trying to win Percy over to begin with?

Annabeth understood Palpatine's interest in her since her strategic thinking was useful in politics and even Anakin who would have ties and influence among the Jedi Order one day and become a powerful Jedi in his own right, but Percy didn't make sense. She knew her boyfriend was extremely talented in his own way. He was an incredible warrior and a natural leader. He had successfully led their troops in the Battle of Manhattan, and not just anyone could walk into Camp Jupiter and become praetor in less than a month. But, Percy didn't play the political games necessary for the complex galactic political stage. He was more like a general who was a good leader because he inspired loyalty in others. So why would Palpatine want a warrior during a peaceful time? Did he want a bodyguard or someone who would take out his enemies? She didn't like the idea of anyone using Percy like that.

She watched Palpatine closely as Percy thanked the senator for his offer, once again rather respectfully. For the briefest of moments, she swore that there was a hungry look in Palpatine's eyes that made her think maybe Percy was right, and the man did resemble a shark. For the time being though, they needed him whether he was a shark or not. Palpatine could pressure the right people when it was time for them to move against the Hutts. He would also be their best protection if the Jedi did decide to give them trouble, and now, he could help them see Anakin. Neither she nor Percy had to like the senator or even trust him necessarily, but they would have to play his game whatever it was at least for now. It was a good thing then that Annabeth was excellent at winning games.

* * *

Addendum - Palpatine

Palpatine watched the Naboo cruiser leave the atmosphere. It had certainly been an interesting two days. He had underestimated those children once again. But in this case, much as the girl had done in their Shah-tezh game, he had not been playing to win but rather playing to learn. He was testing their defenses and observing what rules they played by since clearly they did not share the same limitations as others in this galaxy.

Originally, he had created that recording of Jocusta years ago in the hopes of using it to gain access to the Jedi archives one day. However, this was a far better use for it since after his seduction of the Jedi, he knew she was far too noble to ever give in to blackmail or threats. By using it to blackmail himself, he had confirmed Palpatine's innocence in the attack on Naboo placing the blame solely on Darth Sidious and the Trade Federation. The blackmail also acted as a trial for the children. It was supposed to lead them to Mustafar where he had several traps to test their abilities and even his new secret apprentice waiting for them. If they were competent, Dooku was supposed to let them escape with the blackmail and information he had planted on that computer including the files of Maul's training that would teach them the tenets of the Dark Side.

The girl though had found a convenient way around that. From the information he had gathered, Chase and Jackson were supposed to be from some primitive backwater planet that struggled with the early stages of space travel. The girl had even used a bow and arrow analogy for Force sake, yet she had somehow breached his advanced cyber defenses, detected his undetectable espionage devices that he had planned to use to spy on them, and effectively manipulated the HoloNet. Clearly, they had access to technology that surpassed even his, or Chase was smart enough to push this galaxy's technology to new limits though it probably was a combination of the two. He just needed to get his hands on that datapad of hers, the one she carried everywhere with her.

At least that assassination attempt had provided an assessment of their physical capabilities. Sakiayan's were known for their strength. It would have been difficult for even an average Jedi to best that assassin, yet the two children seemed to have done it practically in their sleep. Surprisingly, it had been one of the few assassination attempts in the galaxy that he had nothing to do with. It seemed like Chase and Jackson indeed had a talent for angering powerful people.

He knew that Jackson and Chase were still weary of Palpatine. His attempt to better Jackson's opinion of him had backfired and raised the girl's suspicion. However, the visit had forced the children to develop a codependent relationship with Palpatine and that was something he could work with. Besides, the long, challenging games were always far more interesting.

 **Next chapter will be Percy's point of view and should be some space pirating and Percabeth which hopefully will be a nice change from all of the politics. I should be able to post in two weeks, so you won't have to wait too long.**


End file.
